ALL THE

WINNERS
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APRIL 2023 #518 YOUR EXPERT GUIDE TO TODAY’S TECH ALL YOUR
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TOP DOG CPUs

INTEL DON’T

13900KS BIN IT
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7950X3D
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11 GENIUS IDEAS!

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 INTRO
EDITORIAL
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Editorial
Editor: Ben Mansill [email protected]
Senior Journalist: Shaun Prescott
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Creative Director: Troy Coleman
Contributors
David Crookes, Nate Drake, Samantha Greer, Matt Hanson,
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Management
Managing Director: Neville Daniels Spotlighting the best of the best
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[email protected] Welcome to an extra fabulous issue of APC. It’s a hot one because
Printed in Australia by IVE we’ve got some primo gear reviewed, and it’s extra hot because we
Distributed in Australia and NZ by Are Direct have all of the winners revealed for the big annual Australian PC
ISSN 0725-4415 Awards. Woot.
Future Publishing Australia Here at HQ, the whole team has been badgering Chris for the last
PO Box Q1179, Queen Victoria Building, NSW 1230 couple of weeks about his reviews of the Intel 13900KS and AMD
Corporate Web: www.futureplc.com 7950X3D. “Have you benched them yet? Which is better? Is the
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.apcmag.com new-gen X3D as amazing as we hoped?” Having these two chips
pitched against each other is Ferrari vs Lamborghini stuff. They’re
We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from BEN MANSILL the big dogs, and it’s especially interesting because it’s basically a
responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The
paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed Likes nice things. contest of brute force, with Intel hitting 6GHz for the first time in a
forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The
manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or PEFC
consumer CPU, while AMD is playing trickery with its innovative
certification and accreditation V-Cache to get the results. And yes, Intel is more than just about
All contents ©2023 Future Publishing Australia or published under licence. All
rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or
brute force these days, but seeing how they stack up with two
reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. generally different approaches is fascinating.
Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England
and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All Turn to page 36 to get the verdict. Both are immensely powerful,
information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as
we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any
but as it turns out maybe AMD’s flagship 7950X3D isn’t the X3D
responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to chip to lust after. For the moment.
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publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents
or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and
again Apple has absolutely decimated the Intel and AMD X86
not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. competition, and it seems that we’re steadily
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we have all of the We enjoyed playing with the small but mighty
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care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or
licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material winners revealed for NUC reviews in APC, so we’ll try and include
the big annual more in the future. These small form factor PCs
is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend,
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Awards. Woot." Plus, the Awards! 2022 certainly brought with
it more challenges that a single year deserves,
information to inform you of other publications, products, services and events.
Future Publishing Australia may also give your information to organisations
that are providing special prizes or offers and are clearly associated with the
Reader Offer. Unless you tell us not to, Future Publishing Australia may give your
but it was also a year when we saw new products
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consideration, come up with worthy finalists, stand-out Highly
Commended gear, and the best of the best overall winners. Tune in
on page 50 to see what we liked best. Maybe there’s gear you
bought and are, we hope, are loving. Across 27 categories there’s a
tonne of quality here that we feel needs acknowledgement, so a big
congratulations to all the people behind the gear that won. Your
Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne
hard work and clever design gets you the big gongs and shows that
company quoted on the
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Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford
Chief financial and strategy officer
even in a difficult year there’s always quality to be found.
(symbol: FUTR) Penny Ladkin-Brand
www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

3
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4
 #

#
 INTRO
CONTENTS
APC518 APRIL 2023

DON’T
BIN IT
!

PAGE 058

11 GENIUS IDEAS!

FROM HARD DRIVES TO VETERAN LAPTOPS –

PUT YOUR RETIRED GEAR TO GOOD USE AGAIN
PART 4

BEST NEW
PC SKILLS
YOU SHOULD
LEARN TODAY (R)EVOLUTION OF PORTABLE AUDIO
The world goes digital
Not even the Sony Walkman could shield analog
There are always new tricks to master to help you audio from the future, but the key technology that
keep up with the latest technology. Robert Irvine launched the Compact Disc first appeared in a
suggests 16 ways to expand your digital skills and telephone during World War II
the best free tools to use PAGE 068 PAGE 064

6
 TECHNOTES FEATURES
010 News 050 2023 Australian
What’s been going on PC Awards
012 Tech brief 058 Bring tech back
Microsoft is rushing from the dead
ChatGPT Bing onto 075 Erase all your
smartphones – and private data
that’s a bad idea 068 Best new PC skills
013 Tech brief 064 (R)evolution of
Facebook and Instagram Portable Audio
want you to start paying
for success
014 End user PC BUILDER
Social media is in 082 System news
upheaval Mark Williams is
015 Random access ready to get HAMRed
Search Wars: Is it finally on cheap high-
AMD RYZEN 7950X3D & INTEL 13900KS Bing’s time to shine?
016 Two bits
capacity drives
083 Market watch
036
Upscale any A sampling of PC
streaming video systems available
017 One more thing 084 Blueprints
Running an online Value- and
business performance-driven
020 Futures hypothetical builds
Neuralink: the future
of medicine?
024 How it works HOW TO
GoPro Hero11 Black Mini 088 Quick tips
026 A-list Solving a variety
The best products on of tech problems
the market 090 Block all adverts
030 Gadgets in Windows
Techy toys and trinkets 092 Make the most
APPLE M2 MACBOOK PRO SYNOLOGY DISKSTATION of Notes
032 DS723+ THE LAB
094 Apps and tips for
your Android and
043 032 Apple M2 MacBook Pro iPhone
033 Asus Zenbook 17 OLED 096 Nifty note taking
Fold with Obsidian
034 Intel NUC 12 Pro
035 Asus ROG Strix GeForce
RTX 4070Ti 12GB MASTERCLASSES
036 AMD Ryzen 7950X3D 098 Raspberry Pi
038 Intel 13900KS Design and build
039 Netgear Orbi RBK863S your dream robot
040 MSI Optix G274QPF-QD Part 2/3
041 Acer Predator X32 FP
042 HyperX Armada 27
043 Synology DiskStation DOWNTIME
DS723+ 102 Gaming reviews
044 Asus ROG Rapture High-performance
playtime
ASUS ZENBOOK 17 OLED FOLD ASUS ROG RAPTURE GT-AXE16000
045 Ducky One 3 Aura 106 Game changer
033 GT-AXE16000 Keyboard The Witcher 2:
Assassins of Kings
044 110 Retro
SOFTWARE Floppy drives
046 FreeTube 0.18 114 Chip chat
047 Camera Guard for Mac The less than
048 Kali Linux 2022.4 serious news page

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NOW!
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now to find out
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ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 4070 TI OC

A 4070 Ti with all the trimmings.
035

7
INSIDE APC

HOW WE DO IT

Inside APC
Find out all about APC’s editorial policies, test practices, how to read
the benchmark results, and more.

"Championing
technology doesn’t
mean we’re
unrelenting yes-men
and -women, however,
and APC aims to be as
objective as possible in
all our coverage."

APC is Australia’s oldest consumer Independent reviews Labs testing

technology magazine – having been Championing technology doesn’t mean APC strives to conduct the most rigorous,
consistently in print for over forty years, we’re unrelenting yes-men and -women, objective scientific tests and benchmarks
since our first issue way back in May however, and APC aims to be as objective we can so as to make our reviews as
1980 – and we take that heritage and as possible in all our coverage. That unbiased as possible. We use a variety of
responsibility very seriously. While our means identifying the best products from tools and programs for this, including
focus is obviously on the personal multiple perspectives – the best many freely available benchmark suites for
computer the very definition of the PC performance, best value and best features assessing media encoding, general system
has changed and shifted markedly since and, ideally, the products that offer the performance including storage read and
the early 1980s. As such, we touch on best mix of these three attributes. write speeds, gaming and battery life.
many other areas of tech, too, from As a matter of policy, reviews In most cases, for the benchmark results
smartphones and apps to peripherals, published in APC are not shared with published in APC, you can assume that
accessories, and beyond. We have two product-makers prior to print. We will higher is better. There are certain tests that
goals: to find the best modern tech and contact vendors under certain deviate from this rule where the opposite is
to help you make the most of it. conditions; for example, if we have a true; in those cases, we’ve flagged the
We’re also an open church in terms of problem testing a product that seems to results with a note explaining as such.
platforms. We know most people aren’t indicate it may be faulty, or to invite a We use both tables and graphs for
wed to a single brand’s products and use vendor to clarify how a particular feature displaying results; the latter offers better
a variety of devices. And, like you, works. If an APC reviewer has any ease-of-readability, but tables are more
APC’s journalists want to know what’s potential conflicts of interest involving a compact, so we use these in most cases
good in tech – no matter what platform brand, the review will always be assigned where thoroughness is preferred.
it resides on. to another writer.

TESTBED AWARDS
UPDATED
FOR 2023
The current APC testbed used in the Labs for
benchmarking all components. This testbed is updated
as new and relevant technology comes on stream.

CPU Intel Core i9 12900K

Motherboard Asus Maximus Z690 Apex
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition APC EDITOR’S APC HIGHLY
CHOICE RECOMMENDED
RAM 2x16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 When a product scores You will see this award if
Power Supply Corsair AX1000 4.5 out of 5, it carries the a reviewed product has
Editor’s Choice Award. scored four out of five
Storage Seagate Firecuda 530 2TB These are products stars. It means most
Case Thermaltake Core P8 that exceed expectations people can expect
and deliver a quality satisfying performance
Cooling Cooler Master Flux PL360 AIO experience up there from the product, and
Operating system Windows 11 Pro 22H2 with the very best. that we would use it
ourselves.

8
TECHNOTES
© TSMC

WARREN BUFFETT DUMPS 86%

OF TSMC SHARES
An ominous sign?

Warren Buffett’s holding company,

Berkshire Hathaway, cut its position in
TSMC by 86 percent, according to a CNN
report citing a regulatory filing. The
investment firm also purchased
additional Apple stock. It’s not clear
whether Berkshire dumped TSMC stock
because it expects softening demand for
consumer electronics and personal
computers, or because it’s concerned
about increased risks of China invading
Taiwan, which would threaten the value
AI
of the world’s largest contract maker
of chips.
TSMC is the world’s largest foundry Major Windows 11
feature update
with indisputable technological lead and
will remain No.1 for quite a while, but
there certain risks for the company,
including expanded competition as well Brings Bing Chat to the Taskbar, tablet mode improvements,
as the risk of Chinese invasion. and much more.

Microsoft has unveiled the first big will better surface files and content
Windows 11 feature drop for 2023, that it thinks might be most relevant
which brings with it a handful of new to the user. There’s also the new Cloud
features and changes that are designed PC app, which lets businesses create
© Jon Peddie Research

to enhance the Windows 11 user PCs in the cloud for employees to

experience. The update is available via connect to.
Windows Update now and will roll out Here’s a quick rundown of what’s
to all users as part of the March 2023 new in this second feature drop for
security update on March 14. Windows 11:
Microsoft touts several new features • Bing Chat in Windows Search
GPU SHIPMENTS DROP 35% as part of this release, including an • New search bar options for the
But Intel’s Arc is gaining. optimised Taskbar for tablets and Taskbar
2-in-1 devices, an updated Teams Chat • Touch-optimized Taskbar for tablets
As demand for personal computers interface, full-screen Widgets, tabs in and 2-in-1 devices
softened in recent quarters, sales of CPUs Notepad, and screen recording in • Modernised Taskbar system tray
declined in Q4 2022, and so did Snipping Tool, among many other overflow menu
shipments of GPUs since most client additions. The company has also • Phone Link for iOS (preview)
systems feature integrated graphics. Jon announced Phone Link for iOS, which • Tabs in Notepad
Peddie Research estimates that 64.2 will roll out later in the year but is • Screen recording in Snipping Tool
million discrete and integrated GPUs in available in preview for Windows • Search in Task Manager
total were sold last quarter, a 15.4 percent Insiders now. • Energy recommendations in Settings
decline sequentially and a 38 percent Microsoft is also highlighting a new • Voice access improvements
decrease year-over-year. search box interface on the Taskbar, • Redesigned Quick Assist app
Nvidia retained its position as the which ties in with Microsoft’s recent • Full-screen Widgets panel with
world’s leading supplier of standalone Bing Chat AI launch. The search box third-party widget support
GPU with 82 percent of the market, can now display the Bing Chat icon, • AI powered file recommendations
which is not surprising as this is one of and the Search panel now features the in Start for AAD joined devices
the company’s main businesses. new Bing with the ability to launch • Windows Studio Effects in
Meanwhile, AMD’s share declined to into a chat session with suggested chat Quick Settings
nine percent from around 18 percent in prompts quickly. All users will automatically get
© Shutterstock

the same quarter a year before, whereas For business customers with PCs these new features as part of the
Intel’s share increased to nine percent managed by Active Directory, the Start March 2023 security update rolling out
from around five percent in Q4 2021. menu is being updated with AI that on March 14.

10
 © Nvidia
XBOX PC GAMES COMING
© Apple

TO GEFORCE NOW
Arm-based laptops gaining popularity Microsoft announces 10-year deal
with Nvidia.
Arm SoCs continue to eat at x86’s share in mobile PCs.
Microsoft announced that it had signed a
Although unit shipments of PCs decreased processors will gain even more share and 10-year licensing deal with Nvidia to have
by around 15 percent in 2022 compared to will be in 25 percent of notebooks by 2027, its Xbox PC games stream on GeForce
the prior year and are expected to drop the report says. Now. If the US$69 billion Activision
further in 2023, sales of Arm-based Counterpoint Research predicts that Blizzard acquisition continues, Xbox will
notebooks increased last year and will Arm-powered laptops will “show a also bring Activision Blizzard games to
increase again this year, reports comparatively resilient demand Nvidia’s cloud gaming service. The news
Counterpoint Research. Apple dominated throughout the coming quarters” due to comes one day after Microsoft signed a 10-
the Arm-based laptop market last year success of Apple’s MacBooks, a vanishing year deal with Nintendo to bring future
with a 90 percent share, but as MediaTek performance gap with x86 CPUs and Xbox games like Call of Duty to Nintendo
and Qualcomm introduce their latest Arm strong ecosystem support. once the Activision Blizzard deal goes
system-on-chips for Windows PCs, such But while Apple’s success with its through. Microsoft had offered the same
Arm-based Macs is indisputable, most deal to Sony, which Sony reportedly
people use Windows machines, so once rejected. These deals are an attempt by
companies like MediaTek and Qualcomm Microsoft to satisfy regulators’ concerns
introduce their new Arm-powered SoCs that the Activision Blizzard acquisition
for Windows in 2024, migration of mobile could take games like Call of Duty off
© Counterpoint Research

computers to Arm from x86 CPUs will competitors’ platforms and make them
accelerate. As a result, the share of exclusive to Xbox.
Arm-based laptops will increase to 21
percent already in 2025 and then to 25
percent in 2027, predicts Counterpoint.

© gtastuntcrew302
3DFX VOODOO 5 6000
SOLD FOR $22,000
Lots of money for a rare but archaic
graphics card.

In February a collector put up a rare 3dfx

Voodoo 5 6000 graphics card for auction
on eBay. This was a fully functional
prototype, with engineering work from
AI TO HELP WITH YOUR MINECRAFT CHORES former 3dfx employee Jindrich Semenec
to get the card working with 8xFSAA.
Demo lets you create worlds using a natural language AI model. Bidding quickly escalated, and the final
sale price ended up at US$15,000
Leaks suggests Mojang Studios and Mojang Studios and Microsoft are (~AUD$22,000). Getting the card running
Microsoft are experimenting with a new experimenting with integrating Github in a modern PC isn’t possible, as it uses the
way to make Minecraft more accessible to Copilot for this, a cloud-based AI program long since discontinued AGP 4X interface.
players... using AI. An internal demo that aims to assist developers and AGP rapidly dwindled in use with the
shows a Minecraft player able to spawn programmers by autocompleting code advent of PCI Express in 2003, though the
custom builds, locations, and even NPCs under certain conditions. The AI is able to Voodoo 5 series of cards first appeared in
using natural language in Minecraft’s consolidate complex Minecraft code by 2000, and 3dfx filed for bankruptcy in
command lines. It shows how AI can interpreting player commands, and then 2002. But if you have an old Pentium III
simplify the complicated processes for execute them in real-time. Eventually, it or similar rig still kicking around, you
© @_h0x0d_

advanced creation in Minecraft, or even for could even be able to understand player could potentially still run the Voodoo 5
simple commands like teleportation. voice commands. 6000 in it.

11
TECHNOTES

TECH BRIEF

Microsoft is rushing ChatGPT Bing onto

smartphones – and that’s a bad idea
Determined to bring ChatGPT-powered Bing to Android and iPhone.

Microsoft’s new and improved Bing While some of ChatGPT’s more Rather than constantly being
search engine is getting a lot of worrying glitches and quirks have been overshadowed by the much more
attention (for both good and bad hastily fixed in Bing by Microsoft, such popular Google, all of a sudden people
reasons) thanks to the inclusion of as limiting the chatbot to just five were talking about checking out Bing.
ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence replies, rather than allowing It even led to the Bing app making a
chatbot. And with the AI-powered conversations to keep going (and get rare appearance in the Apple App Store
Bing now appearing on some users’ progressively stranger), there’s still charts.
phones, it looks like it’ll be rolling it work to be done. In fact, even the So it makes sense that Microsoft
out to Android and iPhone mitigations Microsoft has implemented wants to keep this momentum going,
smartphones as well. are being criticised for being too and bring the new Bing to mobile phone
However, while there will be plenty heavy-handed, and now making the users, especially as the majority of
of smartphone users looking forward to new Bing less internet searches are
trying out the ChatGPT-powered Bing interesting to use. "It’s clear that now performed on a
after all the hype, I’m not sure this is a With these kind of mobile device rather
good idea. early hiccups, you’d ChatGPT isn’t ready than a desktop PC or
That’s because despite the exciting expect the company to for primetime just laptop.
potential of ChatGPT, its inclusion in pause the rollout until However, this could
Bing has highlighted some serious they are addressed. yet, so putting it in do more harm than
shortcomings of the AI chatbot. Many However, it seems a key service like good. If Microsoft
users have found ways to get some Microsoft is keen to rushes out the new Bing
weird results, including the AI keep pushing the Bing is a big risk." to mobile users and it
worrying about its memory, and getting new Bing, with doesn’t work correctly,
mildly aggressive with users when its MSPoweruser reporting that some users it may put people off trying the search
incorrect statements are challenged. who have signed up to test early engine again – especially for people
The fact that it’s returning incorrect versions of the mobile Bing app (and the who haven’t tried Bing before.
statements is also worrying, as it’s Edge web browser app) are starting to First impressions count, and if the
supposed to be an authority that users see the new AI-powered Bing interface new Bing makes a bad one, Microsoft
can trust. And then there’s the pop up. may alienate a potentially huge market.
troubling news that it has also been I can see why Microsoft is keen to By waiting until ChatGPT-powered
using offensive language – it’s clear keep ploughing on with pushing the Bing is working perfectly, Microsoft
that ChatGPT isn’t ready for primetime new Bing. Since its announcement at an may miss out on some of the existing
just yet, so putting it in a key service event in early February, 2023, there’s excitement, but it will mean that
© Shutterstock

like Bing is a big risk. been a level of hype surrounding people’s experiences with it will be
However, Microsoft either doesn’t Microsoft’s unloved search engine that much better.
think that, or doesn’t care. I’ve not seen before. Matt Hanson

12
 TECH BRIEF

Facebook and Instagram want you to

start paying for success
Meta Verified could change the social media game.

Meta is testing monthly subscription the platform”, including in search, – along with a wider campaign to get
services for Facebook and Instagram that comments and recommendations. Facebook and Instagram users to sign up
will give users blue tick verification, in a For anyone who uses Facebook and for a pricey monthly subscription.
controversial move that echoes Twitter Instagram to promote their personal Meta Verified is clearly aimed at
Blue. brand, it sounds like the new creators who might be happy to trade
The new Meta Verified subscription is subscription could almost become a some of the financial gain they make
now available in Australia and New prerequisite for success on the platforms. from promotion on Facebook and
Zealand, with Meta stating that it hopes But we’ll have to see how exactly how Instagram for a monthly fee. Yet even for
to bring the service “to the rest of the powerful this increased visibility proves that audience, the fee seems high.
world soon”.  to be in reality. Meta says that Instead, the main aim of Meta Verified
The monthly subscription, which will “subscribers with a smaller following appears to be to allow creators to buy
cost $19.99 on the web may see a more some “increased visibility”, which Meta
and $24.99 on iOS and noticeable impact to admits may vary depending on their
Android, comes with
"There will changes in their reach”, due to “existing audience and the topic of their
features that are the long term, with their smaller posts”. Like Twitter, the result could be a
mainly aimed at audiences. tiered social media landscape, where
creators who want to
Meta stating that it It’s already possible subscribers pay their way to the top of
fast-track their way to wants to build a to get a verified our feeds.
success on Facebook
and Instagram.
subscription service account on Facebook
and Instagram, which
A rollout for business accounts seems
inevitable, and this is where Facebook –
Meta says there are for everyone." is something many which still has the largest number of
five main benefits to users have worked active users of any social media site –
having a Meta Verified hard to obtain. could really tap into a valuable, if likely
subscription. Firstly, you’ll get a verified Fortunately, Meta has promised that controversial, new revenue stream.
badge, which will require you to send a “there will be no changes to accounts on What isn’t yet clear is exactly how
government-issued ID like a passport to Instagram and Facebook that are already much people are, in a tough financial
Meta for authentication.  verified” based on its previous climate, prepared to pay for social media
You’ll also get what Meta calls requirements. services that have historically been free,
‘proactive account monitoring’ to ward But there will changes in the long albeit supported by advertising and
off impersonators in cases of identity term, with Meta stating that it wants to sharing user data. This is something
theft along with security help from “a build a subscription service for everyone, Meta will test with its Meta Verified trials
real person”. But the most tempting, and including businesses and “our in Australia and New Zealand, before a
controversial, aspect of Meta Verified is community at large”. In other words, global rollout that the tech giant says is
the promise of “increased visibility and while businesses can’t yet apply for a coming “soon”.
© Meta

reach with prominence in some areas of Meta Verified badge, expect that to follow Mark Wilson

13
OPINION

END USER

Social media is in upheaval, and the bosses

are scraping for cash
Competition is following Musk’s lead for more increasingly bizarre ways to make money,
writes Shaun Prescott.

Consumer technology for $8 a month (roughly $12 in arrogant air of someone who,
controversies come and go: this Australia). increasingly, seems to find great
time last year everyone was A few things: text message pleasure in pissing people off.
Shaun is an talking about NFTs; this year it’s 2FA is by far the least secure: Especially his political
Australian editor AI. Both are compelling topics SMS hijacking is relatively easy opponents, as the tech
for PC Gamer, worthy of reflection and to do for dedicated hackers, and billionaire drifts further and
GamesRadar and discussion, but their is increasingly frowned upon by further to the right.
PLAY, and writes
prominence in the discourse security experts. Twitter’s That said, some of Musk’s
for APC, TechRadar
and more. ebbs and flows. There is one rationale is probably the seemingly-stupid ideas have
topic however, that neither ebbs following: it costs the company been adopted by his
nor flows but remains roach-like money to send text messages, competitors, in particular Meta.
in the crosshair: Elon Musk. and the emphatically Once the province of celebrities,
What is the bumbling tycoon unprofitable company probably official corporate accounts and
up to now? Well in last year’s doesn’t want to keep spending other “notable” people,
episode, space boy purchased money on this. verification – in
Twitter for $44 billion. After Further, putting “There is one topic other words the
sacking great swathes of its it behind a blue tick
staff, initiating paywall is likely however, that neither denoting an
incomprehensible policy to discourage ebbs nor flows but account’s
changes to its verification people opting authenticity
system, and all the while for what is by remains roach-like in – has been
delivering some of the worst far the most the crosshair: Elon dragged
Tweets known to internet-kind, convenient, through the
his latest genius move – at the albeit flawed, Musk.” muck these past
time of writing, at least – is to method of 2FA. six months.
charge for account security. According to an old internally- Now Facebook and Instagram
Specifically, for the privilege produced Twitter report, as of are planning to introduce a fee
of text message two-factor December 2021 74.4 percent of for their blue ticks, and
authentication, you’ll need to 2FA users opted for text message Australia suffered its soft
sign up to Twitter Blue, which is authentication. The rub? Only launch. Mark Zuckerberg
a service beloved by trolls 2.6 percent of users in total used assured us all that the $12 a
wanting to masquerade as any 2FA at all. month service would include
official accounts. While So it’s probably not a bad idea things like extra protection and
two-factor authentication to phase it out. But what bonkers improved reach, but that doesn’t
conducted via other means – optics! Optics is surely one of change the fact that the blue tick
third-party apps, for instance – the most fascinating aspects of itself has totally lost its original
will remain free, the text Musk’s Twitter takeover, too, meaning. It used to mean: this
message option will be and this poorly explained policy account is real. Now it means:
paywalled behind Twitter Blue change was delivered with the this account paid to appear in
my feed (furthermore, on
Twitter, it also denotes: I’m a
Musk sycophant).
Meta has its own verging-
catastrophic money problems,
with the endless syphon known
as its metaverse plans, not to
mention the endless plummet in
prestige its marquee product,
Facebook, has suffered over the
last three years. Social media is
a famously difficult thing to
monetise. Is scraping the
bottom of its users’ purses for
loose coins, while compromising
the integrity of its systems
the answer? Who knows,
but one thing seems likely:
whatever Musk does, the
© Twitter

others will do too.

Shaun Prescott

14
 RANDOM ACCESS

Search Wars: Is it finally Bing’s time to shine?

Chat GPT might be great at history essays, but AI chatbots are set to become the foundation
for tomorrow’s web searches too.

OpenAI’s Chat GPT has had a ‘What diseases cause sneezing, loss caused a US$140Bn rout in stock
more significant impact on society of smell, fever and difficulty market valuation.
than perhaps any other single AI breathing?’. Chat GPT is Bing’s chat function isn’t
breakthrough to date, thanks to exceptionally capable at impervious to faults either, with Joel is one of the
its ability to quickly write custom, responding to questions like these the select group of Beta testers that senior journalists on
long-form responses to multi-part and can synthesise factual were offered initial access to chat APC magazine and
questions, but its potential to information into a concise answer. responses reporting that it apart from being
revolutionise web search is a This revolutionary approach to regularly delivered factual errors, the resident laptop,
monitor and fitness
function that is only just searching for information far sulked, said that it manipulated
tech geek, he’s also
beginning to be understood. exceeds the summary function on people, actively gaslit some users pretty into surfing
Web searches are used for a a traditional Google search and it and even went so far as to threaten his local Sydney
variety of reasons and outcomes, has the company scrambling to others. beach breaks when
but one of the largest use-cases is integrate its own AI technology Chat GPT is still really the poster he’s not in front of a
searching for answers to into products. Early in February, child for most people of this recent screen.
questions. ‘Who is winning the Microsoft announced its plans to AI hype, predominantly because
Australian Open? or ‘When was integrate a more developed version it’s the only one that is readily
Australia’s Federation?’, for of Chat GPT into its Bing search available. In theory, Bing and
example, but many questions we engine, a move that drove Google’s chat functions should not
think of don’t have such simple Alphabet to rush through a only be a step forward in response
factual answers yet still require a preview demonstration of its AI capability, but because they have
simple response: ‘Who is the chat competitor, Bard, the access to the internet in real-time,
deadliest person in history?’ or following day with a mistake that they’ll also be able to answer
questions about current and
developing information.
This new search functionality is
expected to be initially expensive
for Google since the cost of
supercomputers capable of
processing the
large volumes of
AI requests, and
"Bing has perhaps its
the power to run first ever meaningful
them, could add
up to US$6Bn in
opportunity to steal a
operating costs, significant chunk of
according to a
Reuters report.
search market share
But Alphabet’s from the incumbent
Chairman John
Hennessy
Google."
reckons the
models are developing at such a
rate that the computational power
is likely to be negligible in a couple
of years and the company stands to
lose much more in market share if
it doesn’t excel in this space.
Bing has perhaps its first ever
meaningful opportunity to steal a
significant chunk of search market
share from the incumbent Google,
depending on how quickly it can
get Bing chat to market. Since it’s
already the primary backer for
Open AI, it’s pretty well positioned
to do so… we just hope that the
company can curb its penchant for
devious behaviour, so it doesn’t end
up like the company’s racist Twitter
chatbot Tay.
Joel Burgess

15
OPINION

TWO BITS

Upscale any streaming video

Nvidia Video Super Resolution is sort of like DLSS, but for streaming video.

Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super through these browsers can bitrate and lower resolution
Sampling is nothing less than support VSR. Think YouTube, streams.
revolutionary. In short, it’s Netflix or Twitch among others. It As VSR uses Nvidia’s Tensor
Chris has been designed to increase gaming can also be used for work related cores, some increase in GPU
elbow deep in frame rates or allow you to purposes like webcam or utilisation and power consumption
PCs since before increase your resolution with teleconferencing, delivering is to be expected. It’s something to
the turn of the minimal sacrifices to image clearer and less blocky images. be aware of if you’re on your last
millennium, and quality and latency. It uses Why is there a need for VSR? bar or two of power and weighing
he wouldn’t have it
everyone’s favourite 2023 Nvidia claims that 90 percent of up whether to stream just one more
any other way.
buzzword – AI – to do it. Now a all internet video is streamed at Binge episode or not.
similar, yet different technology is 1080p or less, and I’m not going to It’s important not to expect
coming to do the same for argue with that. 4K is bandwidth wonders from VSR. It won’t
streaming video. But while DLSS intensive and 1080p isn’t going magically take a 480p stream and
3.0 uses game engine data and can anywhere. On top of that there are give you 4K OLED TV
generate frames, streaming video internet speed constraints and demonstration-quality video. But I
is fundamentally Wi-Fi congestion issues. The do feel it’s a very useful feature and
"It’s designed to different. Enter ability to upscale, well, crappy if it’s anything like DLSS, it could
VSR. quality video to something become an absolute must have in
increase gaming Nvidia’s latest slightly less crappy is a welcome the months and years ahead.
frame rates or allow 531.18 driver feature. For now, VSR is only supported
introduces Video Enabling VSR is dead easy. Just by desktop and laptop RTX 30 and
you to increase your Super Resolution head open the Nvidia Control RTX 40 GPUs. RTX 20 support is
resolution with (VSR) for the first Panel (usually via right clicking coming, but Nvidia hasn’t put a
time. VSR is able on your desktop) and then timeline on when to expect it. But
minimal sacrifices to take low bitrate navigate to the ‘Adjust Video there’s another product that could
to image quality and or low-resolution Image Settings’ menu and then benefit from VSR, and that’s the
video and ‘RTX Video Enhancement’ menu. Nvidia Shield. Even today it’s one
latency." improve its VSR has four quality pre-sets, with of the best streaming devices
quality. A deep 1 being the least intensive, and 4 available, and it already includes
learning algorithm examines each being the most intensive. I had a some of Nvidia’s AI know-how. I
frame in real time and is able to look to see how it works, and wouldn’t bet against a next
reduce compression-related though I only had a short time to generation Shield (or perhaps an
artefacts, improve clarity or play with it, repeating a 1080p Nvidia Tegra-powered Nintendo
display it at a higher resolution. YouTube stream with VSR on and Switch?) including some kind of AI
For now, the tool works via off wasn’t earth shattering. That’s accelerated VSR tech.
Google’s Chrome or Microsoft’s probably an over expectation on AI is seemingly all pervasive and
Edge browser. Any online video my part. It’s naturally going to the boffins are just getting started.
from 360p to 1440p played produce better results with lower Chris Szewczyk

16
 ONE MORE THING

Running an online business

Jon Honeyball wonders if the web designer’s day is coming to its end.

Running a small business isn’t As a solution it works out Andre is very talented, but a
easy – I know, I have two of reasonably well, but computer geek he is not. He was
them. My main gig is writing WordPress is not without its armed with his M2 MacBook
about technology, but the food issues. Keeping on top of Air, a web browser, a Shopify
Jon Honeyball
company that I run with my security and updates can be a login and all the background
Jon Honeyball
husband Andre is different. particular pain. For the Janda information we had – product promises he won’t
This is public-facing, and it’s a refresh, I was conscious that details and photography had do a SYSKEY on
lot of work to do marketing, e-shop design and hosting had already been sorted. Four hours your computer if
trade and public shows, and moved on, with one of the later, he showed me the you email him with
operate an e-shop for direct biggest new players being workings of an excellent site. It your username and
sales to customers. Shopify. had everything we needed: password.
We have two brands with So the obvious thing to do product selector, basket, credit
two websites: Manfood at was to reach out to various card handling and so forth.
welovemanfood.com and local web design companies So it’s now up and running,
Janda at jandafood.com. Now, that worked with the Shopify and has been
I have been following the rise platform. The first came back built for the "Four hours later,
of e-shopping since its first saying that if we worked with main part by
tentative steps in the mid- tweaked standard designs, someone who he showed me the
1990s. Back in the day, setting then the cost would be $7,000. doesn’t workings of an
up an e-shop was difficult and If we wanted more understand
required a lot of code customisation, add another computers at excellent site. It had
munging. Better still if you $3,500 to the bill. The second all well, everything we needed:
hosted your own server, with a company’s quote was even certainly not at
database and a payment more eye-watering than our a nerdy level. I product selector,
gateway. It was a lot of work horseradish: “In order to do needed to step basket, credit card
and a lot of hassle. this we would need to build in for 15
Then, in the early 2000s, the core store – $35,000 – and minutes to handling and
along came WordPress, and a then build two clone stores help with the so forth."
huge market emerged for that which we can swap out the DNS, but this
platform. Being an extensible language for $8,600 each. This could have
technology, it allowed would take you to $52,000.” been handled by a Shopify-
companies to build all sorts of I took a quick look at the provided DNS name if required.
bolt-on capabilities. We have Shopify site and wondered What of security and updates?
used WordPress for the “how hard can it be?” Usually It’s Shopify’s responsibility to
Manfood site, including its this mindset results in a keep everything up to date. As
e-shopping capabilities, and to smoking crater. But over the for the $50K bill to build a
do this we retained the Christmas shutdown, Andre Shopify e-shop for us? Let’s just
services of a web design and sat down with his laptop and say that we politely declined.
hosting consultancy. created an account in Shopify. Jon Honeyball

17
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TECHNOTES
FUTURES
W E E X P L O R E T H E T R E N D S A N D T E C H N O L O G I E S T H AT A R E S E T TO S H A P E T H E F U T U R E

A cure for paralysis and blindness that could one

day allow humans to level up their own cognition
– and all you have to do is trust the tech’s most
tempestuous CEO to plonk an implant into your
brain.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has ambitions as lofty as
SpaceX’s dream of a mission to Mars and Tesla’s
fantasy of driverless cars. Founded in 2016,
Neuralink is building an implantable brain-
computer interface (BCI) that would allow computers
to read neural signals. That could, in theory, help
anyone suffering paralysis, blindness, dementia or
other brain diseases, but Musk also sees the
technology as valuable to boost human capabilities.
“It’s like replacing a piece of your skull with a
smartwatch, for lack of a better analogy,” he said at a
recruitment demonstration known as “Show and
Tell” in November.
Neuralink showed attendees a video of monkeys
that spelt out the words “welcome to show and tell”.
The previous year’s demo involved a monkey playing
a Pong-style game by thinking about moving the
controller, while the year before a pig was shown
with an embedded implant.
Musk claims the technology will be ready to
implant into a human brain within six months, and
that he intends to have one surgically shoved into his
own skull in a future demonstration. All this is
subject to regulatory approval, which in the US is
covered by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Obviously, we want to be extremely careful and
certain that it will work well before putting a device
in a human, but we’ve submitted, I think, most of our
paperwork to the FDA,” he said. It’s worth noting that
Neuralink has previously hoped to begin human
trials in 2020, and Musk in 2021 said he hoped they’d
begin in 2022.
And there’s already a challenge to that FDA
approval. A complaint has been filed by the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, as
well as a federal investigation into animal welfare,
sparked by internal staff complaints that the
company’s rushed development pace is causing
unnecessary suffering. Neuralink also faces
increasing competition from the likes of Science
Corp, which is working to cure blindness, and

Neuralink:
Synchron, which is hoping to treat paralysis.
Can Neuralink survive these challenges? Is Musk’s
intensity helping or hindering? Will BCI change lives

an old idea
or remain a dream? Here’s what we know.

How it works
At its most basic, Neuralink is a chip that’s

that could be
stitched into the brain with tiny threads that pick
up signals. If doctors want to read brain signals
now, they attach electrodes to the skull; Neuralink

the future of
is a miniaturised version that not only reads
signals but sends them in order to tell a paralysed
limb to move or – perhaps one day – control a

medicine
smartphone without moving a muscle.
“The basic idea isn’t science fiction,” noted Andrew
Jackson, professor of neural interfaces at Newcastle
University. As a neuroscientist with his own
neurotech spinout, MintNeuro, Jackson has been
Brain-computer interfaces have long been in the controlling animal brains with computers since the
works, but now Musk is applying the accelerator. early 2000s. “I was building a wearable electronic
circuit that sat on the head of a monkey and was
That could sink his own efforts, but might spur connected via electrodes to brain cells,” he told APC.
useful research too, finds Nicole Kobie. “We called it the neurochip back then.” The aim was
to track brain activity in order to build connections to

20
 Reading minds
The tech challenges aren’t small
– though they are about size.
Implants not only need to be tiny
to reduce damage to the brain,
they also require wireless links
to avoid those cables through the
skull, draw the lowest power
Left: Musk claims imaginable, be rechargeable and
the Neuralink tech support updates, which
will be ready to Neuralink has said will be
implant into a brain
possible. “All of that’s relatively
within six months.
Below: The firm’s easy given the kind of
use of animal sophistication that we have with
testing has raised smartphones,” said Jackson.
ethical issues. But challenges remain,
particularly with decoding brain
signals. It’s now easy to train a
prosthetics, and his work has system to pick up a signal: tell a
expanded into generating person to move to the left, or think
movements as well as suppressing about moving to the left, and
epilepsy seizures. record what their brain does.
“I think the thing that people Eventually, a system can be told to
don’t often understand... is that look for that pattern. But what
this is a concept and an idea that’s happens when we try to go beyond
been around for some time,” he such simple decoding?
said. “And impressive progress has “I think there’s a sense within
been made.” the technology industry that all the
Indeed, Neuralink’s core idea has problems go away if you can scale
been demonstrated by researchers up to more and more data,” said
since the BrainGate trials in 2009, Jackson. “If you increase the
with implants in humans as early bandwidth of things and increase
as 2002. And progress has where the two meet. “The the number of channels you get a
continued, with a trial at Bristol’s challenges are always at the Moore’s Law effect and the
Southmead Hospital helping to interface – it’s where the mushy problems just fall away.”
reverse symptoms of Parkinson’s in biology bit meets the fabricated That did work with AI speech
one patient using a deep-brain engineering bit,” he said. “If you recognition, which required tons of
stimulation device. put an electrode into brain tissue training but is now commonplace.
Beyond Musk’s showmanship you can record nice bright signals But reading more complicated
and funding, what’s different with on day one, but then over time the signals, such as complex thoughts
Neuralink? The form factor, for a quality of those signals sort of beyond “left” or “right”, might not
start. The BrainGate trial used an deteriorates and might be unstable. work that way. “If we get to the
implant called a Utah Array, which That’s because of scar tissue point where enough people have
Jackson describes as a “bed of nails building up around the electrodes.” got brain implants and we can get
of 100 electrodes”. And while it Jackson said that from these big data sets, is it going to
works, that’s one of the core Neuralink’s public presentations, it turn out that the interface that has
limitations to the existing seems the company may not be been trained on someone else’s
technologies: the implanted fully aware of such challenges, or brain or a lot of other people’s
electrodes exit through the skin to underappreciates the hurdle they brains then works for your brain
be plugged into external present. “Those are the kinds of without having to go through a
equipment. things that are much more difficult training process?” asked Jackson.
That’s the challenge Jackson is to solve and the solutions aren’t He added: “It’s not like I can
trying to solve at MintNeuro, what microelectronics fabrications identify a neuron, a single brain
which is working on a wireless are used to dealing with,” he said. cell, in my brain that’s analogous to
design, and the core benefit of Jackson cautions that Neuralink one in your brain. That’s not how
Neuralink’s design, which is low hasn’t yet released significant brains work... all our brains are
power and wireless in a tiny details about the hardware itself, different.”
package. “What they’re doing well with the product presentation What this means is that scaling
is developing low-power wireless actually part of a recruitment day the technology from simple animal
interfaces, so you can get rid of the rather than a technology games to mind-reading will take a
cable through the skin, and demonstration. “I think the long time and a lot of effort, and
making a reasonably small implant academics among us would prefer might not even be possible. “We
package that’s connected to lots of that there were scientific papers don’t know whether it will scale the
flexible electrodes, and speeding being published where we could same way as speech decoding or if
up the implantation of the device see all of the details, but it’s sort of a it’s just a fundamentally different
with surgical robots,” he said. culture clash,” he said. “That’s how kind of problem... but that’s not a
“What they’re doing is quite academics work. But we have to reason not to try,” he said. “It’s an
sensible.” sort of realise that’s not how tech interesting question... and you only
The biggest hurdles aren’t the companies work.” find out by getting these kinds of
hardware or the brain science, but devices into people’s brains.”

21
TECHNOTES

Leadership challenges memories, and even stream Spotify

The core idea behind Neuralink without headphones.
is sound, which is why others are Whether Neuralink is serious
also developing similar implants. about such aims matters, argues
And the technology could be Jackson, as it impacts the ethical
genuinely useful. But Neuralink equation. It’s worth testing on
still faces challenges. animals – or some believe it is – to
The biggest of all might be Musk. help reduce human suffering,
His demand for fast development which is why we allow it for drug
could be behind those animal development, for example. But if
testing complaints, with Reuters the intent is to avoid putting on
reporting that staff have suggested headphones, the balance shifts. “If
the high-pressure environment – your goal is to develop technologies
in which Musk urged staff to work to help severely disabled people,
faster by picturing a bomb strapped you can justify putting a device like
to their heads – was leading to fatal this into someone’s head,” said
mistakes. Jackson. “It’s more difficult to
Neuralink is reportedly under justify if we’re using disabled
investigation by the US people as a stepping stone to collect
Department of Agriculture over slapped down, even by his own the data sets that we’re going to use
animal testing complaints. Staff, executives – but Neuralink does Above: The to develop the next generation of
once again according to Reuters, face rising competition. That said, Neuralink chip is human-enhancement product.”
raised concerns over the pace of stitched into the
while founders want their On the other hand, Musk’s fast
brain with tiny
testing, saying it was causing company to become the first to threads to pick up pace of development could be
unnecessary suffering and even achieve a tech milestone, those signals. damaging more animals than is
deaths of animals by running trials awaiting medical help want necessary, but could also mean
concurrently rather than one at a solutions that work properly – the quicker progress. Do researchers
time and waiting for results. rest of us are happy for multiple BCI have a responsibility to work at
Further complaints report surgical suppliers, so having a robust pace when the goal is reducing
mistakes causing suffering to industry is positive. human suffering? “There’s a
animals. balance, and you can go too slowly,”
Since 2018, 1,500 animals have Culture clash Jackson said. “There are people out
been killed in Neuralink testing, As Neuralink is a private firm led there who would benefit from his
though that doesn’t necessarily by an infamously outspoken technology, assuming it works and
indicate wrongdoing. In response individual, there’s plenty it it’s safe.”
to the accusations, Neuralink has doesn’t have to share with the
detailed its animal welfare policies, rest of us – this is the culture What next?
saying it exceeds industry clash that Jackson referred to There’s another benefit to
standards. The Physicians earlier. While researchers in the Neuralink: it draws attention to
Committee for Responsible field are intrigued to know how the field. The aim of the “show
Medicine has countered that the the tech works, there is another and tell” was recruitment, and
FDA should investigate. “The key question: what’s the intent? shining a light on these
company’s own employees admit We know Neuralink wants to technologies could help draw the
that its botched animal cure blindness and physical best and brightest to the field.
experiments may be suspect to paralysis, as well as brain diseases Jackson says he’s already unsure
regulators,” said Ryan Merkley of such as Parkinson’s. But Musk has whether to advise students to
the Physicians Committee in a also suggested the aim is to Below: Is research stay in academia to work on such
statement. enhance humans, perhaps letting into brain-computer topics or to find a tech startup –
Musk is famously in a rush – his those with Neuralink implants interface it’s hard to see where the most
claims that Tesla’s Autopilot mode “speak” telepathically, control technology going progress will happen. It also
is fully self-driving are repeatedly devices with our minds, access too quickly? draws investors, making it easier
for rivals and new startups to
find money. “I think it’s really
great for the field in a lot of ways,
but there are also a lot of things
that they need to do by the book,”
Jackson said.
This research is unquestionably
not new, and work was progressing
before Neuralink joined the crowd.
The troubles that follow Musk
might distract Neuralink – and
attract regulatory attention that
derails the firm’s work – but the
miniaturisation of chips and
wireless tech means we’re ever
closer to the day when someone
regains sight or the ability to walk
from a brain implant, whether it’s
made by Neuralink or not.

22
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TECHNOTES

HOW IT WORKS

GoPro HERO11 Black Mini

In 2022, GoPro released the HERO11 Black and HERO11 Black Mini. With up
to 5.3k 60fps and built-in HyperSmooth video stabilisation, the Mini has
similar hardware features to its bigger sibling. So, let’s look at the inner
workings that make this new form possible!

Right: Once opened, the

components on the inside
of the GoPro camera are easy to
replace, but opening it non-
destructively is almost impossible.

"The HERO11 Black’s Mini-Me gives

off a ‘back to the roots’ vibe – no
display for live preview whatsoever.
Just a rugged little camera, ready to
take a beating."

24
 Major tech specs
• GoPro’s GP2 processor for image processing and stabilisation
• 27.6MP 8:7 1/1.9in sensor with ultra-wide angle lens (ƒ/2.5)
• High-res video. Up to 5.3k @60fps and 2.7k @240fps for
slow-mo
• 0.5in 72x32px OLED status display
• Waterproof up to 10m
• 133g (21g lighter than the bigger HERO11 Black)

Key findings
• A look under the hood reveals an internal battery, a USB-C
port to charge it, and a microSD slot. The lens cover twists right
off. Flipping up the Folding Fingers uncovers eight T5 Torx
screws. Underneath, there are two more T5 Torx screws
but they don’t provide access to the GoPro’s insides. Sigh!
• All screws come out, but nothing moves, so there must be glue.
We use a Dremel and the heatsink lifts off like it was never
attached in the first place. Victory at last!
Above: There are four T4 Torx screws under the lens cover. Sadly, removing them • Three Phillips #000 screws are loosened to remove the flexible
doesn’t offer much of a way into the camera. circuit board (FPC) from the heatsink. Underneath sits the
speaker for the camera’s sound. Located between two
mounting holes is the GoPro’s rear-facing MEMS microphone.
• The battery can now be unplugged. After that, it takes just one
T4 Torx screw to loosen the battery tray and pull the 1500mAh
Li-Ion cell out of the case. An internal battery for a camera that
is virtually impossible to open non-destructively? Not nice!
• To free the mainboard, we unplug the connector for the sensor
and remove the four Phillips screws, only to find it’s a rigid-flex
PCB and realise that the other part is buried even deeper.
• After peeling back some tape, there’s one more Phillips #000
screw and the USB port assembly can be pulled out of the body.
With the mainboard unobstructed, it reveals that the MicroSD
slot is soldered directly to the second part of the mainboard.
• With the connectors unclipped, removing the FPC uncovers
a Phillips #000 screw and the mainboard is freed. We unclip
the EMI shields and remove the thermal paste to see a GoPro
GP2 processor, Samsung 8GB eMMC memory, Qorvo power
management, a microSD connector, and an STM
microcontroller.
• Next up is unclipping the sensor’s EMI shield, removing some
tape and lifting the latch that keeps the FPC in place, and
removing three 1.3mm hex screws that secure the lens.
• The PCB is rather unspectacular but at the top, we can spot a
significant contributor to GoPro’s HyperSmooth stabilisation,
Above: Heat usually works but when your opponent is a heatsink, things get the Bosch BMI260 inertial measurement unit. “Are we there
difficult. Only a trusty Dremel tool can save the day. yet?” Not quite. There are two more Phillips #000 screws before
we get a glimpse of the Mini’s secondary PCB.
• On the top side, there is a GoPro’s shutter button, a 0.5in
72x32px OLED display, and a Seiko ML414H backup battery.
The bottom side is no less exciting. We find a Qualcomm
QCA9377 WiFi and Bluetooth chipset and a top-facing MEMS
microphone.
• Four T4 Torx screws hold the aluminum bracket in place.
Lifting the metal frame out of the case reveals a power/pairing
button and, on the bottom side, a front-facing MEMS
microphone.
• Repairability Score: 2/10 (10 is easiest to repair). The lens cover
can be twisted off and replaced. But the elephant in the room is
the non-removable battery. Once open, components are easy to
replace but opening it non-destructively is near-impossible.

ABOUT IFIXIT
iFixit is a global community of tinkerers dedicated to helping
people fix things through free online repair manuals and
Above: As promised by GoPro, it’s the same lens and sensor that the company teardowns. iFixit believes that everyone has the right to maintain
uses in its full-sized HERO11 Black. and repair their own products. To learn more, visit www.ifixit.com

25
THE A-LIST

THE A-LIST

The A-List
The best products on the market, as picked by our editors.
FIND THE BEST DEALS ON NEW GEAR AT GETPRICE.COM/AU

PREMIUM LAPTOPS BUSINESS LAPTOPS

NEW ENTRY NEW ENTRY
APPLE MACBOOK
PRO 16IN (M2) Dell Latitude
STUNNING CREATIVE
POWER
9330 2-in-1
FLEXIBLE BRILLIANCE
All the upgrades to this
This is a brilliantly made 2-in-1
2023 model are within, as
that’s flexible both in design
Apple’s M2 Pro and M2
and configuration. Everything
Max processors take
screams quality, from the
charge. Combine this
wide-gamut 13.3in matte
power with the 16.2in
screen to the enhanced
mini-LED screen,
features for Zoom calls – including a superb
superb sound system and phenomenal battery life, and
1080p webcam, mics and speakers.
you have the world’s premier workstation laptop. $5,031, dell.com/en-au
From $3,199, apple.com/au

ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES
NEW ENTRY NEW ENTRY NEW ENTRY
DELL XPS 15 APPLE MICROSOFT LENOVO ACER DYNABOOK
(2022) MACBOOK AIR SURFACE PRO 9 THINKPAD T14 TRAVELMATE P6 PORTÉGÉ
Surely the best The MacBook Air M2 APC rates the Intel GEN 3 (INTEL) Not the most powerful X40L-K-101
Windows all-rounder looks like a standout to model highly, the SQ3 An awesome keyboard, due its 11th gen Core A simply brilliant 1kg 14in
money can buy, with a us. A powerful and model less so. With slim design, chip, but a great 14in laptop that excels in all
slim design, gaming quiet ultraportable with Intel, you get a solid screen and keyboard,
customisable spec and areas, including superb
potential and plenty of an unbeatable battery upgrade to the world’s superb battery life and
power courtesy of life and a great pro leading detachable fine selection of ports competitive price lift it battery life. Buy the K-105
Intel’s 12th gen Core display. tablet laptop. make this a great above rivals. for $2,193 if you can live
processors. From $1,899, apple.com/au $2,549, microsoft.com business laptop. $2,799, acer.com with a Core i5 processor.
From $2,924, dell.com $2,529, lenovo.com/au $2,543, anz.dynabook.com

GAMING LAPTOPS EVERYDAY LAPTOPS

MICROSOFT SURFACE
RAZER BLADE 15 LAPTOP GO 2
(2022) FEELS LIKE A PREMIUM
A SUPERBLY ENGINEERED ULTRABOOK, BUT COSTS
GAMING POWERHOUSE HALF AS MUCH.
Right now there’s just not A solid update to an amazingly
another better gaming unit good value mid range
around. It’s miraculously ultrabook. It runs cool and
thin considering the beefy quiet, and has up to 30
components inside, percent better battery
thermals are very well performance than its
managed and the Razer predeccessor, all in a
Blade 15 manages to beautifully designed form with
extract very good performance from its GPU without undue a superb keyboard and
throttling. There are many variants and options, and they’re an trackpad.
outstanding buy if you find one on sale. ~$4,499, razer.com/au-en From $1,099, microsoft.com/en-au

ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES

LENOVO LEGION AORUS 17 ASUS ROG LENOVO YOGA HP ENVY HP PAVILION 14

5I PRO (16IN) If you’re after a device ZEPHYRUS G14 SLIM 7 PRO 13 (2020) This slim 1.4kg laptop
A great-value gaming to seriously game on, (2022) A powerful, well It may not be the world’s is a superb choice for
laptop that’s extracts and you don’t care A powerful gaming designed ultrabook with most exciting laptop, but anyone on a tighter
the most from its about the bells and ultraportable that lights an awesome OLED the Envy 13 is a compact budget. it struck an
powerful components. whistles then this is a up for both work and screen for a good price. and forward-looking excellent balance
We really love the great option that cuts play. The AMD CPU and The original 2-in-1 bends machine that’s ideally between speed and
keyboard, too. costs in all the right GPU balance well. into a new clamshell suited to these battery life – around
From $2,649, places. $3,99, asus.com/au shape. homeworking times. ten hours.
lenovo.com/au $3,699, gigabyte.com $1,699, lenovo.com $1,699, store.hp.com From $999, store.hp.com

26
CHROMEBOOKS
ASUS CHROMEBOOK LENOVO FLEX 3 LENOVO IDEAPAD DUET
The Chromebook answer to
FLIP CX5 CHROMEBOOK Microsoft’s Surface tablets, this
The best big-screen This isn’t the most powerful
is a seriously versatile device
Chromebook we’ve tried, with Chromebook, but students
– albeit not the speediest
a bright 15.6in Full HD display need reliability more than
(although we never found it to
with decent black levels and power – especially if they’re
be painfully slow while carrying
surprisingly rich colours. only really using it for
out everyday tasks). For this
And it’s a good specification homework, note-taking, and
price, and with a 16hrs 14mins
for the price, with a Core i3 perhaps the occasional bit of
battery life, the Duet is a great
processor, 8GB of RAM and a Netflix.
choice.
128GB SSD in tow. $484, lenovo.com/au
$899, lenovo.com/au
$1,213, asus.com/au

TABLETS
APPLE IPAD PRO APPLE IPAD (2021) SAMSUNG GALAXY
12.9IN (2021) Apple performs its usual trick S8 ULTRA
M1 POWER IN YOUR PALM FROM of upgrading just enough to The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8
$1,199 keep the iPad affordable and Ultra is an enormously
Blurring the boundaries between up to date, without treading on impressive tablet. It makes a
laptop and tablet like never before, the toes of its more luxurious fantastic first impression with
the M1-powered iPad Pro stablemates. The big bezels its gorgeous screen and thin
12.9-inch is every bit as fast as we remain, but a faster processor, body, and is great for
expected – and the “Liquid Retina more storage and improved multitasking. If you want the
XDR” display is simply camera all add to its appeal. best Android tablet going,
phenomenal. From $499, apple.com/au there’s no question at all that
From $1,649, apple.com/au this is it.
$1,499, samsung.com
EVERYDAY MONITORS
PHILIPS BRILLIANCE EIZO FLEXSCAN EV2480 DAHUA DHI-LM28-F420
346P1C Businesses in particular will This affordable 4K monitor might
34-INCH CURVED DOCKING, love this easy-to-roll-out not offer much in the way of menu
No-one can match Philips for its 24-inch monitor, with its options or high-end gaming perks,
mix of quality, features and value, exceptional five-year warranty, but it offers impressive resolution
especially when it comes to USB-C port for easy docking, and colour for ally pay.
curved MVA monitors such as this. excellent viewing $269, dahuaaustralia.com.au
It’s great for casual gamers and angles and delicious whites.
busy workers alike, with USB-C And it has the best OSD
docking and superb colours. around.
$849, philips.com.au $699, eizoglobal.com

PROFESSIONAL MONITORS
EIZO COLOREDGE CG319X BENQ PD2725U EIZO COLOREDGE CG279X
CREATIVE MASTERCLASS, $7,119 By no means a cheap 4K Designers who need to work
As the price indicates, this monitor 27-inch monitor – unless you across different disciplines will
is for heavyweight creatives who compare it to the Eizos – but it love how easy it is to switch
demand the best in every marries all-round quality with between the Adobe RGB, DCI-P3
discipline: HDR video editing, print ease of use thanks to a puck and sRGB colour spaces using the
layouts, professional photography that allows you to quickly move Eizo’s fantastic OSD. It’s certainly
and more besides. With superb between settings. You can even not cheap for a 27-inch 1440p
coverage and accuracy across all daisy chain a second monitor, but it’s packed
spaces, plus a built-in calibrator, it Thunderbolt 3 monitor for a with quality.
justifies the investment. monster setup. $3,095, eizoglobal.com
$7,119, eizoglobal.com $1,799, benq.com

HOME OFFICE PRINTERS

EPSON ECOTANK ET-1810 CANON PIXMA PRO-200 BROTHER MFC-J4540DWXL
BACK TO BASICS Yes, it’s big and it’s expensive – Home workers will love this inkjet
There’s nothing flashy about this and you don’t even get a scanner all-in-one. It combines an
bottle- fed inkjet: it’s there to – but the Pixma Pro-200 means incredible range of features with
churn out pages at a decent rate that you can print A3 photos with all the connectivity you need and
(8.8ppm for black text) for a low glorious colour accuracy and extreme ease of use. Output
price. It comes with enough ink for detail. If you’re after an office quality is fine, it offers the best
4,500 black pages and 7,500 in workhorse, look elsewhere, but it cloud support around and the
colour, but refills are cheap. Just can’t be beaten on photo quality.  high-capacity ink pack could keep
don’t expect features like duplex $809, canon.com you going for years.
printing. $420, brother.com
$299, epson.com.au

27
THE A-LIST

WIRELESS ROUTERS
NEW ENTRY
SYNOLOGY WRX560 ASUS ROG RAPTURE SYNOLOGY RT6600AX
THE PERFECT ROUTER
Its quad-band Wi-Fi GT-AX16000 Fast, well-featured and secure,
The most splendid, overpowered the Synology RT6600ax is as
smashed-through our perfect for professionals and
performance tests router on the market. But, it’s
silly money and aspirational to prosumers as much as
managing 791.5Mbps up it is for SMBs and smart homes,
close, 375Mbps two most users. Ultimately, though,
it’s currently the highest-spec and the app and interface are a
rooms away and an delight to use for both experts and
amazing 216.7Mbps consumer router available.
$1,299, asus.com/au plug and play users alike.
down the garden.. $599, synology.com/au
$599, synology.com/au

MESH WI-FI

TP-LINK DECO XE75 TP-LINK DECO X20 ASUS ZENWIFI AX

AXE5400 The price below isn’t a typo: the Deco The interface and design certainly
SUPERB WI-FI 6 MESH
Offers the simplicity, speed and X20 makes it possible to upgrade your aren’t the prettiest (the nodes look
range most people want from a home network to Wi-Fi 6 – as well as like mini space heaters, while the
mesh system. While it’s manage its security – for the price of charcoal version is straight out of the
expensive, nothing else offers some standalone routers. The included 1980s), but if you’re after strong
the plug-and-play simplicity, HomeCare functions are also a great performance, great features and plenty
speed and range afforded by the bonus for households where lots of of expansion potential, the ZenWiFi AX
Deco XE75. devices are fighting over the is a compelling prospect.
$999, tp-ink.com bandwidth. $199, tp-link.com $949, asus.com/au

NAS SERVERS

QNAP TS-130 ASUSTOR NIMBUSTOR SYNOLOGY DISKSTATION

SIMPLE HOME NAS
An above average CPU and RAM AS5304T DS1522+
combo, solid features and affordable This is a hugely powerful At $1,199 it’s not cheap but
price make the QNAP TS-130 worth four-bay NAS that will be factoring in the software means it’s
considering. Alternatively there’s the overkill for most people – not great value. Though some internal
two bay TS230 which features the just due to its speed but also silicon may lack headroom, this is
same CPU, with 2GB of RAM, dual its slightly intimidating user still a well-featured, expandable
drive bays, and an extra USB port on interface – but techies and NAS with fantastic software. The
the front for a modest $50 price gamers should investigate the best part is the DSM software.
increase. Nimbustor AS5304T for both $1,199, synology.com
$250, qnap.com its speed and flexibility.
$799, asustor.com

SECURITY SOFTWARE VPNs PASSWORD MANAGERS

F-SECURE SAFE NORDVPN BITWARDEN

F-Secure concentrates on the NordVPN provides consistent Bitwarden has a huge
basics: faultless protection with and fast speeds, serious advantage: it’s free. It isn’t as
minimal impact on your system’s security, great support for slick as some paid-for rivals,
performance – for a low price. video-streaming services and but it can sync passwords
1-3 PCs, 1yr, $99.99, f-secure.com some cost-effective subscription rates. across all devices for no extra
$59 per year, nordvpn.com charge. Free, bitwarden.com

ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES

NORTON 360 AVAST PROTONVPN SURFSHARK DASHLANE 1PASSWORD

Consistently on the FREE ANTIVIRUS ProtonVPN provided one A strong rival to A manager that’s ideal for 1Password is targeted at
podium in our group For the second year of the best free offerings NordVPN, especially if beginners, and it even technically minded users
tests, and loaded with an running, Avast is our top of all the VPNs in our you’re willing to commit builds in an unlimited (if who are looking for the last
abundance of genuinely pick for free antivirus group test, including to its two-year contract. basic) VPN service. Note word in security. It even
useful features, software – it’s simply unlimited data, but It’s fast, cheap and a you may prefer to buy offers a Travel Mode that
including a VPN and lighter on its feet than upgrade to benefit from fine choice for people the Family plan ($60 per may ease your mind if
generous cloud backup. Microsoft Windows even faster speeds and who like to switch to US year) as this extends the surrendering your phone to
1 PC, 1yr, $79.99, Security, whilst offering many more options. streaming services. service to six people. customs officials.
nortonlifelockpartner.com fewer false positives. Free, protonvpn.com $66.34 for one year, $55.99 per year (Premium), $54.99 per year (individual),
Free, avast.com surfshark.com dashlane.com 1password.com

28
TECHNOTES

Gadgets
TECHNOTES

Tricky devices.

VICTROLA STREAM ONYX

A turntable that connects to your
multi-room sound system.
US$599 | victrola.com

Sonos has traditionally required you to use

one of its amps or particular speakers that
allowed you to plug in stereo audio cables
in order to interface with vinyl turntables,
but a new deck from Victrola will allow you
to wirelessly connect to your multi-room
Sonos system. The Stream Onyx connects
to your multi room system through the
Victrola Stream app finally bridging a gap
that’s existed for a while now. The Victrola
team released the Stream Carbon last year
with a similar feature set, but the new
Stream Onyx should be quite a bit cheaper
without losing too much fidelity.

APPLE HOME POD GEN 2

Better sound at a lower price.
$479 | apple.com/au

The Apple Home Pod Gen 2 doesn’t look overly

different from its predecessor, but it has seen a
pretty big improvement in overall sound quality
and a slight reduction in price. The $479 smart
speaker now contains five higher performing
tweeters that offer notably better sound especially
when two are paired as a stereo system and the
automatic self adjusting audio microphones do a
great job of tweaking the sound to improve audio
quality. The device also offers built-in temperature
and humidity sensors so it’s better equipped to
answer just how hot it is.

30
 3

VAGABUND MOTO FREERIDE E

The electric motorbike you want in the post-
apocalypse.
€19,900 | vgb-essentials.com

There’s some amazingly cool looking e-bikes coming out

these days, but few have the power and full-future
aesthetics as the Vagabund Moto Freeride E. This Austrian
design studio used the popular 2022 KTM E-CX electric dirt
bike as a starting point and hammered it into a polished
futuristic device that would look as slick in any forward
thinking metropolis as it would dodging sustainably
grown pine trees on dirt trails. A brushless 18kW
synchronous motor provides 42Nm of torque to get you up
to speed really quickly. Definitely not the cheapest e-bike
around, but these are basically a bespoke bike that look
unlike anything else available.

FARO UNIT 1 SMART HELMET

A smart helmet that has your back if you get
into trouble.
€249.80 | unit1gear.com

The super successful Faro helmet Kickstarter has

transformed into a fully-fledged product over the
last year and is now available to buy directly
from the company. This clever helmet is able to
signal where you’re headed to traffic and
includes a full set of visibility lights to ensure
you never go unseen. In addition to offering
advanced features like a braking light, the device
also had a Mips safety system installed to alert
emergency services if you’ve had an accident and
can’t do so yourself. If all that wasn’t enough, it’s
actually also just one of the better looking
helmets you can get your hands on.

TWINKLY SQUARES
Twinkle twinkle little square.
$452 | twinkly.com/en-au

If you like the idea of Nanoleaf, but wish

you could customise the light into
images and artworks of your choosing,
then you might just prefer the Squares
Smart LED wall panels. The app
controlled smart panels allow you to
customise your own image or moving
images and the pixelated design means
it’s easier to add custom visuals that
translate well on the wall. At $452 they’re
not the cheapest light kit for your home
office, but they’re super modular and will
let you upload NFTs or sync to your
current games and music.

31
 LABS
REVIEWS
T H E H OT T E S T G E A R L A B S T E S T E D

LAPTOP

Apple MacBook Pro 14 & 16-in (M2 Pro or Max)

Can the next generation of Apple silicon keep the MBP in the MVP spot?
From $3,199 | apple.com/au

Unlike the MacBook Air range, the new

M2 updates of the MacBook Pro 14 and
16 inch laptops aren’t massively
different to their predecessors.
Obviously the devices come with new
M2 Pro or M2 Max processors, which will
bring respectable upgrades to overall
performance, but other than this the
devices only really get new Wi-Fi 6E
networking capabilities, a new
Thunderbolt spec, a faster AI chip and
greater memory bandwidth.
This isn’t a complaint, the 14.2-inch or
16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR displays are
still top of their game with high 3K-plus
pixel resolutions, bright 1000 nit
sustained screen brightness, 120Hz
dynamic refresh rates and full DCI-P3
colour reproduction capabilities. There’s
really not much more that you can get in
a top shelf laptop screen. The devices
also offer industry leading SSD disk MacOS Ventura; 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display at 3456x2234 pixel resolution, 120 HZ VRR, 1600nit
speed tests at 7,700/5,727 MB/s read and peak brightness, DCI-P3 colour; Apple M2 Max 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine; 96GB
write speeds, respectively, and you’ve Unified Memory; 8TB SSD; 100Wh battery (20h20min 1080p movie playback); 35.6 x 24.8 x 1.7cm; 2.16kg.
got a wide range of interface options
including an HDMI and an SD Card a 10 or 12-core CPU, 16 or 19-core GPU your money. That said,for anyone
reader, so you really don’t have to and a 16 Core Neural Engine; 16GB of predominantly looking to use their
sacrifice anything. Unified Memory; and a 512GB SSD. If we laptop for work, especially graphically
One of the top line features of the 2023 look at offerings from Razer and Dell demanding creative work, the MacBook
MacBook Pros is a faster memory these entry level units are by no means Pro’s ability to share memory between
interface with greater bandwidth, so it underpowered and offer competitive CPU and GPU and the generous battery
makes sense that Apple sent us a top of advantages over both the Blade 15 and capable of reaching peak performance
the line MacBook Pro 16 with 96GB of XPS 15 devices. without attached power are some pretty
RAM and an 8TB SSD that retails for Apple has made strides towards convincing drawcards.
$10,099. Obviously this extremely greater engagement with the gaming This battery lasted over 20 hours in
highly specced unit is not going to be for community and it’s about to get a native our 1080p movie playback benchmark
everyone, but the entry level 14 and 16 version of No Man’s Sky, but if that’s an and Apple claims you’ll get 12 or 15 hours
inch devices start at $3,199 and $3,999 important component in what you’re of browser based work from the 14 and
respectively. This much more looking for the faster refresh rates and 16 inch devices, respectively. That’s well
approachable price point will net you a gaming specific GPU of the Razer Blade over what you’d really need for a remote
device with a M2 Pro chip, consisting of 15 is still definitely where you should put work day and should include enough
overhead to actually do some
demanding creative work while on the
"One of the top line features of the 2023 MacBook Pros go, which is something that isn’t offered
is a faster memory interface with greater bandwidth." by other professional laptops on the
market.
Add to this the 19 percent CPU
performance bump and up to 29 percent
MacBook Pro 16 Apple MacBook Pro 16
M2 Max M1 Max graphical improvement of the M2 Max
over the M1 Max and you have a well
Geekbench 5 - Single-core (score) 2,043 1,775 rounded set of upgrades that will be
Geekbench 5 - Multi-core (score) 15,129 12,709 appealing to anyone in the market for a
new top shelf laptop for creative
Cinebench R23 - CPU (multi-threaded) 14,661 12,384
professionals.
Geekbench 5 - OpenCL (score) 77,966 60,630
Sid Meier's: Civilization VI - 1080p Ultra (FPS) 63 50 Improved performance, amazing screen
and unbeatable battery life make this a
Battery life - 1080p video playback (h:min) 20h20min 9h6min desirable pro laptop.
BlackMagic Disk Read (MB/s) 7,741 6,278 Joel Burgess
-------
BlackMagic Disk Write (MB/s) 5,727 5,318

32
 2-IN-1 LAPTOP

Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED UX9702AA

Are flexible screens the future of laptops or just a fad destined to fold?
$6,999 | asus.com

Tech companies need to break new

ground to get a headstart in new
markets, but anyone who has been in the
game a while knows that it’s extremely
risky to be the first to market with a
radically different device. Asus has been
"On paper the idea
toying with alternate laptop screen of a 17-inch laptop
designs for ages now, and it has some
pretty unique laptop offerings that work
screen that can
really well as a result of that, but the fold into a 13-inch-
Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is, arguably,
its biggest and boldest step into novel
ish form factor
laptop technology. clamshell is a pretty
On paper the idea of a 17-inch laptop
screen that can fold into a 13-inch-ish
amazing concept"
form factor clamshell is a pretty
amazing concept. And the Asus
Zenbook 17 Fold OLED can do exactly
this, folding perfectly in half to a neat
package of 28.5 by 19.5cm, which is
within about a centimetre off the
footprint of a 13-inch XPS 2-in-1. The
folding OLED panel isn’t able to fold flat
on itself so there’s a bit of curvature at
the bendy end that adds thickness, but
the accompanying Bluetooth keyboard
that magnetically attaches to the bottom W11 Home; 17.3-inch 60Hz 500nit OLED display at 2560 x 1920 pixel resolution, DCI-P3 colour; Intel Core
half half of the screen fills that display i7-1250U CPU; Intel Iris Xe GPU; 16GB RAM; 1TB SSD; 75Wh battery (12h32min 1080p movie playback); 37.8 x
gap thickness to make the device more 28.7 x 3.3cm; 1.8kg (with keyboard).
sturdy.
The device works well in the without power for an average work day. many benchmarks.
traditional laptop position sitting on top While there are many ways in which The Bluetooth keyboard could also
of the bottom half of the display and you this device is exceptional, it’s also got use some refinement since the
can unfold the 11-ish-inch display into some major limitations. The first is that connection can make the trackpad and
its full 17-inch extended form and prop it while this device offers an unusually cursor feel a bit delayed and you have to
up with the inbuilt kickstand while you large screen, it’s paired with one of independently charge it. The laptop is
use the Bluetooth keyboard. This is Intel’s lighter U series 12th Gen also over 3cm thick when folded with
where the device becomes a really processors, the i7-1250U. This processor the keyboard and the gloss coating on
unique offering, since you can utilise a is more than fit for purpose, offering the screen isn’t great in brighter
giant screen with impressive colours solid boost speeds that make it able to environments, showing a lot of
and deep blackness levels that is great keep up with anything you throw at it reflection.
for media playback and work tasks. The for short periods, but it is only around The main limitation however is the
sound is louder than what you might half as powerful as top specced MacBook price. When you can get a 16.2-inch
expect, and there’s enough battery in Pro models and more than 30-percent MacBook Pro with a M2 Max processor,
either display mode to allow you to work behind 12th gen H series i7 chips in 2TB SSD and 64GB of memory for a
similar price, or a Razer Blade 15 with a
3080 Ti GPU for less, the novelty of
having a slightly larger screen that folds
Asus Zenbook 17 Razer
OLED Fold Blade 15 (2022) doesn’t seem like enough of a drawcard
to pull you away form the best laptops.
PCMark 10 -Overall (score) 4,310 7,126 Maybe in a generation or two this could
Geekbench 5 - Multi-core (score) 6,598 10,093 be the device to beat, but at present,
there’s still a few too many kinks for a
Cinebench R23 - CPU (multi-threaded) 6,749 10,796
$7K laptop.
3DMark - Time Spy (score) 875 9,950
Geekbench 5 - Open CL (score) 14,576 136,521
Expensive new screen tech that could very
Battery life - 1080p video playback (h:min) 12h32min 4h54min well be the next growth segment in laptops.
CrystalDiskMark Read(MB/s) 7,010 6,907 Joel Burgess
-------
CrystalDiskMark Write (MB/s) 5,263 4,951

33
 LABS

PC

Intel NUC 12 Pro

Intel’s NUC 12 Pro is a Windows-based Mac Mini that’s open for business.
$1,059 | intel.com.au

It wasn’t that long ago that we covered Windows 11 Pro; Intel Core i7-1260P CPU; Intel Iris Xe Graphics; 16GB RAM; 500GB PCIe SSD;
Intel’s NUC 13 Extreme compact gaming 11.7 x 11.2 x 3.7cm; 450g.
PC kit launch, but in 2022 the company
launched an even more compact version
for people who wanted a business-style This is a nicely balanced device with do light graphical work and play older
device. The reduced demands of a enough storage to not require constant titles at low settings.
standard workload means that the Intel optimisation and the i7-1260P is a These PCs have been designed for
NUC Pro can fit into a 12-by-12cm chassis powerful chip that will be more than business use so there’s a number of
that’s just under 4cm tall and weighs enough for the majority of workloads. enterprise features enabled that makes
about 450g. That’s notably smaller than Combine this with 16GB of RAM and it easy for IT managers to allow remote
the 19cm squared, 1.18kg Apple Mac you’ll have no problem with photo access and application monitoring.
Mini , which is an impressive feat on its editing, light video and any of the more Most of these features won’t be overly
own, but it’s also competitively priced. standard office applications while you’re useful for your average user, but the
Unlike its gaming sibling, there’s running a bunch of browser tabs. This optional Intel vPro platform does
actually a wide variety of NUC 12 Pro PCs processor was even able to outpace the reportedly use a more stable system to
on offer ranging from a Barebone standard Apple M2 chip on highly make it less likely for you to run into
i3-1220P kit that requires you to add your multi-threaded rendering tasks like issues that can hinder productivity.
own RAM and storage for $499 to an Cinebench. The compact device has ample
i7-1260P system with 64GB of RAM and a The graphics capabilities on the other connectivity options with multiple
2TB SSD for $1,479. Intel sent us a hand are about 35-percent behind what HDMI 2.1 ports, 2 Thunderbolt 4
mid-range unit with an i7-1260P, 16GB of you’ll get on a standard M2 Mac Mini, so connections, Ethernet. 3.5mm audio
RAM and a 500GB SSD which can be it’s not quite up to entry level gaming for and a bunch of USB-A connections, to
picked up for around $1,059. modern games, but that’s still enough to ensure you can easily do or see
whatever you need to.
This inoffensive small black box will
Intel NUC 12 Pro Apple MacBook Air (M2) be more than enough for most workers’
Mid-2022 needs and while it might not be
Geekbench 5 - Multi-core (score) 9,387 8,896 particularly imposing as it is, the unit
also comes with a mounting bracket
Geekbench 5 - Single core (score) 1,748 1893 that’ll allow you to attach it to the back
Cinebench R23 - CPU (multi-core) 11,562 8481 of a monitor or a wall to give you an
even more streamlined workspace.
Cinebench R32 - CPU (Single core) 1,769 1,599
Peak CPU temperature (ºC) 100 Not tested
Geekbench 5 - Open CL (Score) 17,921 27,637
A compact work PC with business
3DMark - Time Spy (Score) 1,790 Not tested perks at a fair price.
CrystalDiskMark Read (MB/s) 3,555 3,063 Joel Burgess
-------
CrystalDiskMark Write (MB/s) 2,526 2,873

34
 GRAPHICS CARD

Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC

A 4070 Ti with all the trimmings.
$1,849 | www.asus.com

If you’re after the best example of any

given GPU, Asus’ ROG Strix cards must
come into the discussion. Though they
often attract a price premium, at least
you know you’ll be getting a product
that’s truly flagship tier.
The RTX 4070 Ti is the third Ada
Lovelace card to be released, and it’s a
good GPU. Sadly – it’s marred by high
pricing. It’s built on the AD104 4nm
GPU with all of its features enabled,
including 7,680 cores, 60 RT Cores and
240 Tensor Cores. The boost clock of
the ROG Strix RTX 4070 Ti is
2,760MHz, a sizable increase of
150MHz over the Nvidia reference
speed. You can reliably set it to a very
impressive 2,790MHz with one click
via Asus’ GPU Tweak app.
It includes 12GB of 21Gbps GDDR6X
memory connected to a 192-bit bus. It’s
difficult to get used to a skinny 192-bit Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12GB OC Edition; 7680 CUDA cores; 2760MHz boost clock; 12GB
memory interface on a card that costs GDDR6X 21Gbps memory, 504.2GB/s memory bandwidth; 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 2x HDMI 2.1; 285W TDP, 1x
close enough to two grand! Its TDP is a 16-Pin power connector.
very reasonable 285W, with power
provided by a single 16-pin 12VHPWR 4080 and 4090 class cards are, but it’s Nvidia’s killer feature. The 4070 Ti
power connector. Asus adds a second close enough. It takes up 3.15 slots – does run into limitations at 4K, surely
HDMI 2.1 port, giving it a total of three effectively four, so it’s not one for a due to memory bandwidth limitations,
DP 1.4 ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports. small form factor build. But a big card although it’s still a capable 4K card in
Asus sets the Strix apart with an means lots of heatsink surface area, most instances. The Asus Strix happily
excellent PCB that’s unchallenged by and the Asus runs cool with a recorded keeps pace with other high end 4070
the AD104 GPU – even when heavily load temperature of just 64 degrees. Ti’s while remaining silent.
overclocked. You get dual BIOS, That’s a good result, because it’s In just about every GPU review over
attractive ARGB lighting and a very achieved with essentially no fan noise. the last few years, we spend too much
useful pair of 4-pin fan headers which The RTX 4070 Ti is a very good card time lamenting about prices. If a
can be used to control adjacent case for a high refresh rate 1440p screen. It $1,500 ‘entry-level’ RTX 4070 Ti is too
fans. These can be set to ramp up with beats out the RTX 3080 Ti – which is no much, then the Asus, at over $1,800 is
GPU temperatures. mean feat, while offering far superior a really tough ask. Some people will
As if you didn’t know it, the Strix is a ray tracing capabilities. That’s before happily pay a bit extra for the Asus
big card. It’s not quite the hulk that enabling DLSS, which in our opinion is name, and there’s nothing wrong with
that. You’ll get a card that’s premium
by every measure. But if it was our
Asus ROG Strix Nvidia GeForce RTX AMD Radeon RX
GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 3080 Ti 7900 XT money, we’d be inclined to go with the
Asus TUF model for a few hundred
2560x1440 Min 51.6 48.0 47.4 dollars less. It may not have the
Extreme
Metro: Exodus Preset Avg 74.7 67.0 65.5 ultra-premium design of the Strix, but
Enhanced in this economy, a few hundred can
Edition 3840x2160 Min 31.8 29.0 28.3 make a big difference. We can only
Extreme
Preset Avg 42.3 39.0 36.0 hope the Strix and all 4070 Ti cards in
general drop to levels that are more
2560x1440 RT Min 48.8 49.5 26.6 enticing for gamers that will never pay
Medium Preset Avg 59.7 60.4 50.1 $1,500+ for a graphics card.
Cyberpunk
2077 Min 23.6 24.1 19.9
3840x2160 RT
Medium Preset Avg 28.3 29.5 24.8
Min 81 80 97 The Asus Strix is a fine example of an RTX
2560x1440
Ultra Preset
4070 Ti, but its price relative to Asus’ own
Total War: Avg 107 108 127 TUF 4070 Ti is too much of an ask.
Warhammer
III Min 42 44 49 Chris Szewczyk
3840x2160
Ultra Preset
-------
Avg 57 61 66

35
 LABS

CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D

Cache, cores and cash.
$1,139 | www.amd.com

In April 2022, to much fanfare, AMD AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D; Socket AM5; 16 cores/32 threads; 4.2GHz base/5.7GHz boost clock;
released the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. It was 128MB L3 cache; Supports DDR4-5200; 120W TDP.
the first desktop CPU to feature AMD’s
stacked V-Cache technology, boosting balanced CPUs combining high thread Up in performance
the amount of L3 cache from 32MB to counts and high frequencies for Vertical chip stacking is an evolving
96MB. Cache sensitive apps received a productivity and creativity purposes chip manufacturing method. As
substantial speed up, with many with loads of L3 cache for gaming. A cutting-edge lithography becomes
games receiving welcome win-win. more expensive and challenging to
performance boosts. AMD is launching the 7950X3D at implement, it’s not feasible to make
It was only going to be a matter of $1,139. That’s a good price compared to larger chips with more cache. So, if
time before V-Cache came to Ryzen Intel’s Core i9 13900KS at $1,199 but it’s building in the x and y directions is
7000 series CPUs. This time around, a lot more than the current street price difficult, why not the z direction?
AMD is launching dual CCD (core of the 7950X, which at the time of Skyscraper style. AMD built the Ryzen
complex die) 12-core 7900X3D and writing was widely available for $879. 7000 chiplets with through-silicon-
16-core 7950X3D models. A single CCD The 7950X3D really has to be a vias (TSVs). These are vertical
8-core Ryzen 7800X3D is scheduled to barnstormer of a CPU or drop in price if interconnects that pass through the
launch in the coming weeks. it’s to win an unequivocal chip itself, allowing AMD to take a
Theoretically, this means well recommendation. modular approach to chip making.

Peak System
Blender 3.3 3DMark TimeSpy
Handbrake 1.6 Cinebench R23 Cinebench R23 7Zip 22.01 Power
Whitelands Extreme
Consumption
File Compression
Rendering Render Time
Video conversion Rendering - Multi - Billion Wall Draw
- Single thread (seconds) Lower Overall score CPU Score
4K to 1080p FPS thread Score Instructions (watts)
Score is better
per second
Intel Core
i9-13900KS
148.9 40,129 2,331 413 204.95 411 18,344 13,500

Intel Core
i9-13900K
144.8 38,949 2,281 417 204.24 401 18,325 13,568

AMD Ryzen 9
7950X
135.9 38,127 2,043 405 226.55 347 18,038 12,793

AMD Ryzen 9
7950X3D
120.0 36,384 2,054 425 210.11 257 17,551 11,450

36
Rather than use resources to create 7950X3D is stunningly power efficient will deliver a more tangible gaming
multiple monolithic chips, it can use and much easier to cool than its Intel performance boost.
one or two CCDs and equip one with competition. That counts for a lot. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is a good CPU,
V-cache (or not) and use these chips V-cache is still a little on the delicate but we get the feeling that the BIOS or
across its entire range. side. AMD has taken a risk averse software has a bit of catching up to do if
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is approach and disallowed overclocking, this technological powerhouse is to
fundamentally the same as the 7950X though you can still use PBO and Curve reach its full potential. In the months
with extra cache and some power and Optimizer features if you like. ahead, with AGESA updates, AMD
clock speed adjustments. All the key driver optimising, or game engine
features of the Zen 4 architecture are Gaming is not always a win awareness, the 7950X3D could take
carried over. It’s a chiplet-based design, With its price premium, the 7950X3D another step forward, but for now it
with dual 8-core CCDs and a shared I/O needs to deliver what it promises, feels as though it’s the wrong SKU to
die. It includes a dual CU RDNA 2 based which is gaming performance. The showcase Ryzen 7000X3D. The
integrated GPU and support for 7950X3D is faster than the 7950X and 7800X3D is definitely the one to watch
DDR5-5200. It’s compatible with all in some cases the 13900K and 13900KS, out for. With a few exceptions, there’s
current AM5 motherboards after a BIOS but it’s very game dependent and a full little need for a very high core count
update. It also offers PCIe 5.0 support picture would only emerge by testing gaming CPU. Games need to run on
for both a GPU and SSD, though specific dozens of games, which is impractical. laptops, quad cores and consoles before
implementations are chipset and Additionally, if they run on
motherboard dependent. you’re using a 32-thread $1,000
From there the specs diverge. Where mid-range GPU, any "The Ryzen 9 7950X3D monsters.
the 7950X includes 32MB per CCD for a contemporary CPU is fundamentally the If you primarily
total of 64MB, the 7950X3D comes with will be sufficient. But load up your cores
an extra 64MB for a total of 128MB. If when used with a same as the 7950X with with demanding
one includes the L2 cache (1MB per flagship tier GPU, the extra cache and some tasks and game a
core) the total is 144MB. Interestingly, 7950X3D is indeed little, the 7950X3D
only one CCD comes with stacked very competitive power and clock speed could be the chip for
cache. AMD says this is for cost and with the 13900KS. adjustments." you, but if you don’t
diminishing return reasons, which A 32 thread CPU game, or on the
makes sense. This leaves one die free to needs to do more flipside, you game a
clock to higher levels and one die with than just perform in games though. It lot, then there are better options, not
gaming friendly V-Cache, though it needs to do well at productivity and least of which is AMD’s own award
requires software awareness to benefit creativity apps, and that’s the weakness winning 7950X. Let’s hope the price of
fully. AMD could probably use some of the 7950X3D. Its lower all core turbo the 7950X3D falls a little in the months
sort of hardware level thread clocks see it fall behind the 7950X and ahead, in which case it will add value
scheduling, much like Intel’s so-called 13th Gen competitors. for money to its stunning power
Thread Director. So, it’s a bit faster in gaming and a bit efficiency and very good – if a little
The 7950X3D is downclocked more than a bit slower in apps. This compromised all round performance.
compared to the 7950X, but not by all leaves us wondering if the 7950X3D, in Chip stacking is here to stay. If your
that much. Its base clock is 4.2GHz, trying to be a one-for-all wonder CPU, workloads and chosen games can make
lower than the 4.5GHz of the 7950X, yet isn’t really a very logical CPU. If you use of all those cores and all that cache,
the boost clock remains the same at primarily need the cores, the 7950X is we say go for it.
5.7GHz. The lower all core clocks will the faster CPU, while being cheaper and
certainly affect applications that losing relatively little in gaming
respond favourably to clock speeds over performance. On the flipside, if you’re a The 7950X3D is an efficient and powerful
cache. Is this compromise worth it? gamer, something like a 7700X, 13600K all-round CPU but its compromises mean it
There is an upside. The lower all core or the upcoming 7800X3D will be much isn’t a jack of all trades.
clocks mean AMD was able to drop the cheaper, delivering very good Chris Szewczyk
TDP of the 7950X3D to just 120W vs the performance allowing you to divert -------
170W of the 7950X. This means the hundreds of dollars towards a GPU that

Ghost Recon: Tiny Tina's

Metro: Exodus Enhanced Edition F1 2021 Far Cry 6 Cyberpunk 2077
Breakpoint Wonderlands

1080p, Ultra
1080p, Ultra
1080p, Low, Avg 1080p, Ultra, 1080p, Ultra, 1080p, ultra high 1080p, Ultra 1080p, Ultra high 1080p, Ultra high Preset, RT &
Preset, RT &
FPS DX12, Avg FPS DX12, Min FPS Preset, Avg FPS Preset, Avg FPS Preset, Avg FPS Preset, Min FPS DLSS off
DLSS off Avg FPS
MinFPS

313 156.5 98.1 471 314 193 149 216 97

311 153.8 95.9 465 309 190 147 216 96

313 152.0 88.2 435 297 177 138 188 74

305 156.8 100.1 504 308 193 142 209 89

37
 LABS

CPU

Intel Core i9-13900KS

Six Gigahertz!
$1,199 | www.intel.com

Back when Intel announced its

13th Generation Raptor Lake CPU
family, it teased a special edition
model, faster than the i9 13900K
and one that could hit an amazing
6GHz out of the box. That CPU is
the Core i9 13900KS. In short, if
you’re after the best 13th Gen CPU
on the market, this is it, though
it’s not a CPU for everyone.
The 13900KS will set you back
$1,199 at the time of writing. That
compares to the 13900K’s launch
price of $1,099 which is
reasonable, but since its launch,
the K has fallen to around $939, so
you’ll be asked to pay a hefty
premium of around $250 for the
KS. That’s also quite a bit more
than AMD’s formidable Ryzen 9
7950X at $879 but not bad when
compared to the 7950X3D at $1,139.
Fundamentally, the 13900KS is
an overclocked 13900K. That
means it has 8 P-cores and 16
E-cores giving it a total of 32
threads. Both the P and E cores
receive a 200MHz base clock boost Benchmarks on the previous page.
over the 13900K, but it’s the 6GHz
maximum turbo clock that gets Intel Core i9 13900KS; LGA 1700 socket; 8 P-Cores + 16 E-Cores, 32 threads; P-core Base/Max Clock Speed
the attention. That’s an increase of 3.2/6.0GHz, E-core Base/Max Clock speed 2.4/4.3GHz; 36MB L3 Cache; 150W Base Power, 253W Maximum
200Mhz over the 5.8GHz of the Turbo Power.
13900K. The E core turbo clock is
the same for both models. Both The 13900KS was already a hot characteristics are hardly less
models support DDR5-5600 running CPU, and the KS is at least as demanding, the 13900K makes
memory (unofficially it supports demanding. Our 360mm AIO cooler more sense. The likes of the
speeds well beyond this) and was borderline inadequate. The KS 13700K and 13600K make even
Intel’s UHD 770 graphics. easily hits 100 degrees leading to more sense for most users while
Given the 13900K some throttling. If the AMD competition remains
is already a power "Against the 7950X and you don’t have strong both in terms of
hungry processor, premium cooling, performance and value for money.
you’d expect the KS its X3D team mate it forget the 13900KS. Still if nothing else, It’s great to
to consume even takes out its fair share When it comes to see Intel and AMD battling for the
more power, and it performance, the performance crown.
does, but not as of wins, though the 13900KS is a beast, The 13900KS is a CPU for those
much as you might AMD chips handily but then so is the who demand the best performance
expect. The base 13900K. As you’ll with little consideration for power
TDP has increased lead when it comes to see on the and thermal efficiency. Add to
from 125W to 150W, power efficiency." benchmarks on the that its price premium and its
while maximum previous page the appeal is generally limited to
turbo power KS is the faster CPU ultra-enthusiasts only. Still, it
remains at 253W. Our total system but low single digit percentage gains really is a very fast chip, in both
power consumption testing across productivity and gaming performance and on paper. Six
showed the KS to use a peak of benchmarks aren’t worth much in Gigahertz! Whoa!
411W under an all core load, just terms of tangible real-world results.
10W more than the 401W of the K. Against the 7950X and its X3D team The 13900KS is a very fast chip but its price
Though we only have a sample size mate it takes out its fair share of premium over the regular 13900K makes it
of one, the KS surely uses Intel’s wins, though the AMD chips handily one for ultra enthusiasts only.
best dies, making it the better lead when it comes to power Chris Szewczyk
processor for hardcore efficiency. -------
overclockers. Though its power and thermal

38
 ROUTER

Netgear Orbi RBK863S

A decent Wi-Fi 6 mesh, but the only thing that’s really exceptional about this Orbi system is the price.
Price: $2,099 | netgear.com

Netgear’s Orbi meshes aren’t cheap, but Tri-band 2.4GHz/5GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi 6 mesh; 4x4 MU-MIMO; 6 internal antennas (each station); 4 x Gigabit
they typically offer excellent Ethernet ports (each station): 10GbE WAN port: 191 x 71 x 254mm (WDH); 1yr warranty.
performance and a decent set of features.
The latest model stretches the formula, However, even if you do have an you’ll only see a benefit from the
though. It’s an update to the Orbi RBK852, ultra-fast broadband line, the Orbi RBK863S’s 4x4 provision if you’re
Netgear’s first flagship Wi-Fi 6 mesh – but RBK863S won’t convey the full speeds it’s connecting from two devices at once.
while it’s still very much priced as a capable of. That’s because the LAN ports It’s a shame, because Netgear’s
flagship product, it brings only modest are stuck at single-gigabit speeds, while software features are, as usual, pretty
enhancements to the original 2020 the wireless hardware tops out at good. Setting up the system: you just
design. 2.4Gbits/sec. It would have made much need to scan the QR code into the Orbi
Most notably, the Wi-Fi hardware more sense to leave the WAN port alone mobile app to connect, then choose a
hasn’t been upgraded at all. At a time and add multi-gig Ethernet on the LAN network name and security settings. You
when most high-end meshes have moved side. can then use either the app or a slick web
to Wi-Fi 6E, the RBK863S uses the exact The performance results weren’t portal to manage your network; the
same Wi-Fi 6 configuration as the shabby. When my laptop was in the same interface and features are exactly the
RBK852. room as the primary Orbi station, I same as with other Orbi meshes,
In fairness, it’s a beefy tri-band system, recorded an average download speed of including Netgear’s incoming VPN server
with 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections for 84MB/sec. This dropped off only to that lets you connect to your home
clients, plus an additional 5GHz network 72MB/sec in the living room, with a network from anywhere.
that the mesh stations use to minimum of 41MB/sec in the kitchen. Indeed, the whole deal feels like
communicate with one another. The While that’s fast enough to meet most Netgear is trying it on. The Orbi RBK852
5GHz networks both support 4x4 MIMO, people’s needs, however, it’s not special was a fine mesh in its day, but that was
allowing for a maximum connection enough to justify the price. There’s a three years ago, and the technology has
speed of 2.4Gbits/sec, and Netgear claims simple reason for this. The ageing radio moved on. No matter what you’re looking
that the RBK863S introduces a new hardware in the Orbi RBK863S is limited for, the idea of paying $2,099 for the
antenna design with 20 percent better to a maximum channel width of 80MHz, RBK863S is frankly laughable.
coverage than the original model, so the whereas modern meshes – including the
three units can purportedly reach an area RBK763S – almost invariably support the If you’re focused on value, the RBK863 makes
of 740 square metres. fatter 160MHz option. The RBK863S does no sense.
There’s one other upgrade to the have the benefit of 4x4 MIMO, but most Darien Graham-smith
hardware: the WAN connector has been devices you’re likely to be connecting -------
boosted from 2.5Gbits/sec to 10GbE. from are limited to 2x2 multiplexing, so

39
 LABS

GAMING MONITOR

MSI Optix G274QPF-QD

Is this new mid range offering the perfect value offering or a mid-range mess?
$469 | msi.com

In a lot of ways the MSI G274QFP-QD 27-inch Rapid IPS Quantum Dot display at 2560 by 1440 pixel resolution; 170Hz refresh rate; <1ms response
gaming monitor looks like a pretty rate; 400nit peak brightness; Vesa Display HDR 400; G-Sync Compatible; 93% AdobeRGB, 95% DCI-P3, 150%
standard 27-inch mid-range gaming sRGB; 8bit + Frame Rate Control; 2 x HDMI 2.0b, 1 x DP 1.4a, 3.5mm audio; 61.3 x 40.2 x 19.7cm; 8kg.
display offering 1440p resolution with a
170 Hz refresh rate, but a closer decent resolution for gaming since you DisplayPort and HDMI capabilities and is
inspection reveals it’s got some novel get an amazing looking image that will perfect for connecting laptops thanks to
display tech to separate it from the pack. run at much higher frame rates than if a 15W power passthrough.
Most prominent of these is the Quantum you attempted to play in higher The Rapid IPS Panel means you’ll get
Dot LED technology which you won’t get resolutions. You will still need a top end response rates of under 1ms and Nvidia
on older screens and should GPU from the last couple of years to Variable Refresh Rate compatibility
dramatically increase brightness and play the latest titles at anything over means you don’t have to worry about
colour capabilities. 60fps in 1440p, so it’s a really sensible screen tearing and other artefacts of high
The flat-panel WQHD monitor doesn’t resolution that provides the most fps gaming. The menu interface is simple
disappoint in this department, offering bang-for-your-buck. to use and offers all the colour and
Versa Display HDR 400 certification and For those with an impressive gaming performance presets you could want,
93 or 95 percent colour space PC you’ll be pleased to know that you there’s no shortage of interface and
reproduction of the respective can run full resolution at up to 165Hz in connectivity options and the screen isn’t
AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 colour gamuts. HDR colour, but if you do want to hit that overly bulky or heavy so there isn’t too
This will be great for professional work full overclocked 170Hz spec you’ll have much in the way of downsides here.
in the sRGB colour space and will even to ditch the advanced colours. For those The only possible other feature you’d
be suitable for most creative tasks in planning on hooking up a console you’ll want in this price bracket is a curved
HDR colour, making it a competitive still be able to get 120Hz over HDMI 2.0b display, but if you’re keen on a flat panel
offering for a mid-range gaming screen. at when gaming in upscaled FHD or you (or connecting multiple panels together),
1440p is a great resolution for a can play 4K (downscaled to 1440p) at then it’s hard to imagine anything
27-inch monitor as it offers that extra 60Hz. There’s also a USB Type-C offering better value for money.
crispness for work without costing the connection that offers display
full whack of a 4K, but it’s also a really compatibility somewhere in between A perfectly balanced 1440P gaming monitor
with great work potential at a reasonable
"1440p is a great resolution for a 27-inch monitor as it price.
Joel Burgess
offers that extra crispness for work without costing the -------
full whack of a 4K"

40
 GAMING MONITOR

Acer Predator X32 FP

Acer’s new large format gaming display has bright specs, but does it break enough new ground?
$2,999 | online.acer.com.au

The Acer marketing pamphlet pitches 32-inch QLED display at 3840 by 2160 pixel resolution, 576-zone miniLED, 160Hz refresh rate, 1ms G to G
the Predator X32 FP as a monitor response time, 99% AdobeRGB, 90% DCI-P3; DeltaE<1; VESA DisplayHDR 1000; 72.7 x 63.8 x 30.9cm; 10.3kg.
targeted at ‘professional gamers’, but
the E-sports space is still very much gaming screens arrive last year, but AMD graphics card that you can use
1080p centric, so this 4K HDR monitor the Predator X32 FP has a couple of AMD Freesync Premium Pro with.
is more likely to appeal to creative new technologies to give it the edge You’ll need the highest end discrete
professionals who also enjoy gaming over older devices. The first is a GPU of the last couple of years if you
than anyone who plays games for a 576-zone miniLED backlighting array want to game at that resolution with
living. The 165Hz refresh rate, which that allows the screen to massively 60-plus frames per second framerates,
is more than enough for noobs (like boost contrast in a picture by having and don’t expect to test the high end of
me) and competent hobbyist gamers, greater control over the base level the monitor’s refresh rates unless
but which is less than half the refresh backlighting in different parts of the you’re playing older or less demanding
rate of anyone actually attempting to screen. This combines with the use of titles at these resolutions.
compete competitively, is perhaps Quantum dot pixel technology to For enthusiast gamers the only
another indicator that Acer isn’t boost overall brightness offered and additional things you might think are
actually going after the pros. increase the levels of colour. These TV lacking here are OLED technology, a
But while the company may have technologies allow the unit to achieve curved screen and Nvidia HDR gaming
missed their target audience, it a VESA DisplayHDR 1000, which is a compatibility, which really isn’t a lot.
doesn’t mean this display is any less solid colour reproduction for a That said, the device’s $3K price tag
desirable. The 32-inch 16 by 9 panel monitor. means it’s one of the most expensive
isn’t large enough to look awkward on This colour can be used screens we’ve seen and against
your desk, but it’s close enough that professionally too thanks to a colour Samsung’s range of Odyssey monitors
you could theoretically use it as a 10 accuracy of Delta E of less than one it doesn’t seem like the best bang for
foot display if you want to hook up a and 99 percent AdobeRGB colour buck out there.
console to it in a smaller living space. gamut coverage. This is ample for full
There’s 4 HDMI 2.1 ports to choose professional image colour grading in
from here so you can even leave HDR colour spaces. While these specs An impressive, bright and colour accurate 4K
multiple consoles, streaming boxes are generally used to certify gaming display for enthusiasts that could do
and your PC permanently connected, professional capabilities it translates with a price cut.
if you have a range of entertainment well into delivering seriously vibrant Joel Burgess
devices. colour in games too, especially when -------
We saw a lot of larger format you pair it with a 4K resolution and an

41
 LABS

GAMING MONITOR

HyperX Armada 27
A gaming monitor without a stand? Is it revolutionary or misguided?
$779 | https://hyperx.com

We’ve never seen a gaming monitor 27-inch, matte, 2,560 x 1,440, flat-screen, 165Hz LCD with IPS panel. 400-nit brightness, 1000:1 contrast,
arrive without a traditional stand. G-Sync. DisplayPort 1.4, 2 x HDMI 2.0. Tilt -0o/+65o, Swivel 180o, Pivot 90o, 25.5cm height adjustment. 550 x
Nonetheless, HyperX believes there’s a 450 x 130 mm, 8.5kg.
market for such monitors and has
dedicated its Armada range to We were concerned that the layer of ‘Gaming’ for everything. It can also display
supporting it. glass atop our cheap IKEA desk might an on-screen crosshair.
The 27-inch panel arrived in a large box crack (or the particle board deform) Colours are reasonably vibrant and also
that, on opening, seemed to be full of which would mean the clamp would be accurate – it supports 95 per cent of the
scaffolding. At first glance the multiple, too loose, but there weren’t any issues. difficult DCI-P3 colour gamut – and
solid, metal bars and connectors seemed We were left with screen that was transitions are smooth. But, monochromatic
bewildering. Then we realised that parts robustly suspended in space. transitions are less impressive and contrast
were included that both allowed for the And what a difference! Suddenly, the is only above-average. True blacks aren’t
armature to be clamped to the rear edge usable space on our desk doubled! visible and details can go missing in bright
of a desk and also to fit into special holes The range of movement is dramatically areas but, black levels can be adjusted to
that adorn some desks towards the rear. improved over, even the most-malleable, purposely degrade contrast further and
You sometimes see the latter built into fixed, monitor stands and it even pivots reveal enemies hiding in shadows.
corporate, office desks where executive too. Ultimately, you can find better colours and
types don’t want visiting clients looking There are some caveats though. There contrast elsewhere, but the Armada 27 ticks
at ugly desk clamps. If you want the extra are just three connectors: DisplayPort 1.4 the important boxes.
neatness that this fitting affords, you can and two HDMI 2.0 ports. At least HyperX While you can buy similar VESA arms
potentially drill a hole in your own desk, provides a long, red, DisplayPort cable separately for $80, the overall price of $779
too. and a long, black HDMI cable. for this package is reasonable. Ultimately, it’s
Our battle station faces a wall, so we The 27-inch panel itself is very good for a decent gaming panel, on a great stand that
used the clamp. It’s actually incredibly gaming. The 165Hz refresh rate marries suits multi-monitor set-ups and people
simple to fit together: you just clamp the with the 1ms pixel response time to craving more desk space.
base of the supporting ‘pole’ to the table, ensure that even fast-moving objects are
use a quick-release clip to attach the rendered smoothly and sharply, while An above-average gaming monitor that’s
swing-arm to the back of the panel and G-Sync prevents image tearing. The 2,560 elevated in desirability by its useful,
slide the other end onto the pole. Too x 1,440 resolution displays a crisp desk-saving, swing-arm stand.
easy. You can even add additional Windows Desktop that’s also great for Nick Ross
swing-arms for additional monitors to work. The usual picture modes are -------
the same pole. included but we were happiest using

42
 NAS

Synology DiskStation DS723+ NAS

Synology’s latest two-bay NAS offers long-awaited features but more costly caveats.
$799 | www.synology.com/en-au

Last year, Synology impressed us

with its long-awaited, five-bay NAS
(the DS1522+) and it impressed us
despite a few caveats. Now here’s its
new, two-drive sibling, the DS723+
which is generally similar but also
introduces a long-awaited new
feature: solid-state storage pools...
kind of.
The DS723+ takes many design
cues from its older siblings. There are
two SATA slots, two Gigabit Ethernet
ports (which can be aggregated) and
one stick of 2GB ECC RAM. The latter
is a little low for memory-hungry
functions like camera surveillance,
but it can be upgraded to 32GB via an
additional slot. Just note you need to
use Synology’s own brand of RAM
and it’s not cheap with 16GB modules
costing around $550 each – that’s
double the cost of third-party
equivalents.
It’s worth remembering that
Synology is strict on which hard
drives you use nowadays, too.
Despite there being plenty of
dedicated NAS drives being made by
the likes of Seagate and WD,
Synology only certifies a few, 3.1GHz dual-core Ryzen R1600 CPU, 2GB DDR4 ECC RAM (expandable to 32GB). 2 x lockable 3.5-inch drive
third-party, sub-16TB models. Using bays, 2 x NVMe M.2 drive bays, 1 x eSATA, 1 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 2 x 1Gb Ethernet ports, 1 x PCIe x8 slot,
Synology’s own drives comes at a Synology DiskStation Manager operating system.
premium with its 16GB unit costing
$1,100 – double what competitors element of truth that high-capacity connecting external storage.
charge. NVMe hard drives can generate A dual-core, four-thread, 3.1GHz
Still, we were excited to see that additional, problematic heat, the fact AMD Ryzen CPU keeps everything
the DS723+ (and its new, four-bay that so few dedicated NAS drives from running smoothly although video
DS923+ sibling) finally support high-quality third parties are still not transcoders may want more. Different
solid-state storage pools. These are certified is beginning to whiff a bit – components will create different
facilitated by installing NVMe drives especially considering that Synology thermal profiles, but our dual-SATA-
via the clip-in slots on the bottom. itself uses re-badged, third-party populated unit only emitted a mild
But, and this will Toshiba drives. whooshing sound under load.
surprise you, the Still, one optional Synology’s software is excellent, as
feature only works if "It’s worth component that’s always. Its legendary DSM operating
you use Synology’s remembering that proving more system and platform remains robust
own components welcome is the and intuitive and offers an
which are only Synology is strict on special PCI port at unsurpassed, comprehensive library
available in 400GB which hard drives you the rear which of free, well-supported (and well-
and 800GB supports a $300, documented) home-and-enterprise
capacities that cost use nowadays, too." 10-Gigabit network NAS and server applications.
$300 and $520 adapter. While it’s At $799 it’s not cheap (especially
respectively. not cheap, having with upgrades) but, as ever, the
High-quality, third-party NVMe NAS 10GbE networking and dual-NVMe outstanding software boosts the
drives typically cost under $300 for drives, does enable real-world, read value proposition.
1TB. and write speeds of around 1,000MB/s
As ever, the requirement for using and 800MB/s respectively. That’s one It can get frustratingly expensive, but
bespoke, expensive components is heck of a jump from SATA’s typical Synology’s software makes this the best
justified by claims from Synology sub-200MB/s read and write speeds. two-bay NAS around.
that everything else degrades Other features include a rear- Nick Ross 
stability, but it’s a claim that’s mounted eSATA port and a front- -------
wearing thin. While there’s an mounted USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port for

43
 LABS

ROUTER

Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000

It seems Asus hasn’t been happy with its recent stream of overkill gaming routers.
So, it’s made an even better one...
$1,299 | rog.asus.com/au

Asus is in a mad race with itself to

produce the fastest, most overpowered,
feature-laden wireless router. It must
already hold at least nine of the Top 10
positions for super-premium gaming
routers, yet the new ROG Rapture
GT-AXE16000 is this week’s standard
bearer.
It’s big, brash, spikey and the wife
hated it. The RGB top (and its seven
pre-set patterns) illuminates half the
house at night and there’s no timer to
turn it off. Set-up is simple: just scan a
QR code on it’s bottom with Asus’ phone
app, set the network name and password
and voila.
The phone and browser apps are well
designed. They’re responsive, show
connection statuses, alert you to issues
(and suggest solutions), provide
extensive QoS options, include server-
grade apps, enable mesh network
creation (from other Asus routers) and
offer a plethora of premium, consumer
router features. There are extensive,
easy-to-set-up, parental controls which Speed: Wi-Fi6E 16,000Mbps | Connectivity: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x 2.5Gbps WAN, 2 x 10Gbps W/LAN,
bind children and devices together and USB-A 3.0, USB-A 2.0 | Features: 2GHz Quad-Core CPU, Trend Micro Security and family controls, extensive
set either online or offline schedules for QoD optimisation, Alexa and Google Assistant compatible.
weekdays and weekends. There’s also
(adjustable) content blocking with quad-band Wi-Fi with a crazy weatherboard cottage, it only dropped to
pre-sets for different age groups and, 16,000Mbps theoretical throughput. 520Mbps, which rivals the best two-
unlike some rivals, you don’t need to pay That’s spread across a 2.4GHz band, two node, mesh systems. At the bottom of
a premium for the feature. Neither must 5GHz bands and the new 6GHz band. the garden (25m away) it managed
you pay for the built-in security which Despite the power and the simple 101.5Mbps. While the latter is a little
comes via Asus’ Trend-Micro-powered design, we had issues testing it. Neither slow compared to rivals, it’s worth
AiProtection feature. our new Wi-Fi6E sporting Dell XPS 15 remembering that, once the new
In addition to four Gigabit Ethernet nor our new Asus Zenbook recognised Wi-Fi6E connections settle down, this
(two can be aggregated), USB 2.0 and the 6GHz band, whether it was bound router has a great deal more headroom
USB 3.0 ports there’s a 2.5GbE WAN port together with other bands or separated. to go faster.
(which can be aggregated with one 1GbE Only our Asus Zenfone did! That’s Other special gaming features include
LAN port) and two (count’em) 10GbE despite driver updates and location shortest-route-to-game-server
ports, one of which can also be used for hacks (not every global region allows the optimisation, game packet priority
WAN. Inside there’s a 2GHz, quad-core same 6GHz channels to be used). (even when a VPN is running) and a
CPU that keeps everything ticking Still, it flew in our tests. Up close we Mobile Game Mode that ensures
under load. downloaded large movie files from our phone-based games get top priority.
The GT-AXE16000 also supports NAS at 825Mbps. Two rooms away, in our Ultimately, it’s the highest-spec
consumer router available, but is
extreme overkill for most users. At
$1,299, most people should look at
Synology’s speedy, feature-dripping,
rivals which cost much less. But, we
have to admit, those don’t carry the
aspirational cachet of this monster from
Asus.

The most splendid, overpowered router on

the market. But, it’s silly money and
aspirational to most users.
Nick Ross
-------

44
 KEYBOARD

Ducky One 3 Aura Keyboard

The Mercedes car door of typing keyboards.
$229 (TKL Black), $189 (Mini White) | pccasegear.com

The quest to find a keyboard that’s a

joy to do the business of actually
typing on can be confusing. With so
many keyboards claiming gaming
chops, and seemingly being the only
options for something that’s nice and
premium, what about people that just
want a slick daily driver that feels
great to use?
Enter the Ducky. This Taiwanese
brand has been designing keyboards
that are always just a little bit
different for many years, and the
company has a stellar reputation
amongst keyboard enthusiasts. It’s a
diversified range, with some of the
more exotic Ducky boards offering
much of the style and uniqueness of a
custom board with custom keycaps –
but without the DIY fiddling. Indeed,
even the more middle of the road
boards like the new Ducky One 3 Aura
we’re looking at today feature easily
hot-swappable keycaps, and there are
a great many attractive options
available to customise your standard
board, or just pick one of the cool
colour combos Ducky has off the combined with a padded acoustic cap walls. This creates a sea of light
shelf. dampening layer that sits under the that the keys appear to float upon,
By far the biggest selling point for length of the board, as well as a and naturally you can choose a
the Ducky One 3 Aura in regular use supplementary layer of EVA foam variety of colours and modes. I didn’t
is the feel. It’s just sublime. I’ve been underneath the PCB. It’s all quite like it. At all. At first, at least. The
testing two models from the One 3 Mercedes car door as a result. Even the first model I tested was a white 60%
Aura range that use Cherry RGB space bar test – which most keyboads Ducky One 3 Aura Mini which has
Silent Red keys, and my gosh are they fail with an uneven clatter – is bang on white lettering printed on white
nice. The movement is smooth and here with a smooth movement that’s keycaps, and no matter how I messed
luxurious, yet with a firm sprung quiet and consistent across the length. with lighting settings the letters were
feeling when pressed that suits long It screams quality, in complete silence. nearly invisible in a puddle of light.
periods of typing so well. Mistakes The standard range of Cherry So I requested a black sample, this
are rarer, and the experience is switches is available for almost any time the larger One 3 Aura Black TKL,
delightfully premium. model in Ducky’s rather huge range. and problem solved. There’s still a
But many companies use Cherry The lighting scheme is also a little wash of backlight, but it’s far more
switches. What makes the Ducky feel bit different. Instead of shining manageable with black keys, and
so good? It comes down to an through clear lettering on the top of the lettering is distinct enough to
extremely rigid and solid base, the cap, the light spills out via clear run with lights off during the day, no
problem.
It games well too, but is free from
adornments like media controls or
macro keys, so it’s a better board for
just pecking away at your novel, with
some occasional fragging of zombies.
The $230 price (for the Black TKL) is
relatively highish, but it’s fair value.
It’s all about the quality with Ducky,
and being just a little bit different.

A premium typing experience with above

average build quality that’s just nice to use.
Ben Mansill
-------

45
 LABS
SOFTWARE
A P P S F O R A L L Y O U R P L AT F O R M S

Windows 7, 8.1. 10 or 11, macOS or Linux | freetubeapp.io

FREETUBE 0.18
Screen-Capture tool.

Watch videos on YouTube and you’ll be subscribe to channels without signing much time has elapsed and how much is
watched yourself. This is because into an account. remaining. It also splits long videos into
Google tracks your viewing habits and FreeTube lets you watch YouTube chapters, as on the YouTube website,
targets you with adverts. FreeTube videos within its own window, view and lets you refresh the Subscriptions,
solves both these problems by them full screen or pop Trending and Most
providing an alternative front-end for them out into a floating "This program has a Popular pages by
YouTube that lets you stream videos window by switching pressing R on your
privately on your desktop without to Picture-in-picture simple design that keyboard. Additionally,
having to sit through endless ads. mode. Best of all, you lets you quickly find if you have a
This open-source program has a can download videos to touchscreen laptop, you
simple, streamlined design that lets your computer in MP4 videos on YouTube can skip back and forth
you quickly find videos on YouTube or format by clicking the or browse ‘trending’ through videos by
browse its ‘trending’ and most popular Download Video tapping the left or
content. When you first run FreeTube, button below the and most popular right-hand side of the
you’ll see an empty Subscriptions page, media player and content." player.
but you can ignore this and start choosing your Click ‘More info’ then
searching for something to watch. Your preferred resolution. ‘Run anyway’ if you see
search results can be filtered by upload The latest version of FreeTube, a SmartScreen warning when installing
date, duration, view count and other which is officially still in beta, – it’s safe to use, with a clean bill of
criteria, and you can save videos to a displays a progress bar when you’re health from VirusTotal (see www.
playlist to watch them later and watching a playlist so you can see how snipca.com/44340).

1 You can open a new FreeTube 2 Click the funnel button next to 3 Click the star icon in the 4 Select ‘Settings’ to configure
window by clicking the the search box to filter your top-right corner of a video to how FreeTube looks and
overlapping squares icon to the search results using several save the clip to watch later. It works. You can change the
left of its logo. This lets you criteria. These include how will then appear in the colour of its theme (including
watch videos while continuing recently the video was Playlists section of the to dark mode); hide
to search the site. Alternatively, uploaded, its duration and the program. YouTube channels recommendations and user
switch to its Picture-in-picture number of people who have you subscribe to are added to comments; and block
player. viewed the clip. both Subscriptions and sponsored messages in
Channels. videos.

46
GPL3 licence | www.kali.org

KALI LINUX 2022.4

If you exist in the grey twilight between good and evil, and want to look cool
while doing it, David Rutland has just the distro for you.

Like many Linux distros, Raspberry Pi OS now

sports its own quick search apps system.

There are nine evil

dragons of hacking in
this screenshot. We bet
you can’t spot them all.
Download the ISO and
find them yourself.

Kali Linux is an evil distro for hackers, certain mobile phones. Hardware Bluetooth, SDR and MouseJack
ne’er-do-wells and other undesirables resource access, and other more support – just what you need when
who want to overthrow the state and esoteric factors, may vary, but Kali penetration testing.
sow chaos. You can tell because of the makes it easy to install on anything – There are some additions, too. These
menacing wallpapers that feature with dedicated images for each, so you include bloodhound.py, a Python-
evil-looking dragons, who are can maximise the resources of what’s based ingestor for Bloodhound (a tool
doubtless up to no good. available. for finding hidden relationships
There’s also the vast array of tools Kali is based on Debian, so within an active directory or Azure
designed for network analysis, installation on our decidedly non- environment); peass-ng, a collection
penetration, password cracking and exotic VM was simple and familiar, of privilege escalation tools for
other such things, which we’ll get to once the epic download of up to 11GB Windows, Linux and Mac OS; and
shortly. They’re kind of a giveaway. was out of the way. There were no ldapdomaindump, which does exactly
Rapidly approaching its tenth nasty surprises or unnecessary what you probably think it does.
birthday, Kali is the go-to distro for complications, and after selecting Everyone knows that 1337 haXors
individuals in the network security Xfce over either Gnome or KDE, we are all about the cool eye-candy, and
field, those wanting to get into were on the desktop in a couple Kali doesn’t disappoint. Desktop-wise,
the field, and people who want to look of minutes, staring into the side-eye of Gnome lovers will be pleased to find
cool and mysterious while hammering a malevolent dragon who wanted us to Gnome 43 as an option. You can also
on a keyboard in the local cafe. hack something – anything! deploy your exploits from KDE Plasma
The 22.04 release just squeezed in Because, don’t get us wrong, 5.26. As always, the wallpapers are
before the end of 2022, and in unauthorised entry is Kali’s raison top-notch artwork, usually featuring
recognition of the essential nature of d’être. Sure, you can use it as a daily dragons. There’s also a graphical
the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi, Kali has driver, and it’s great. You get network monitor in the task bar –
now been added to the Raspberry Pi everything you’d expect with a neat.
Imager tool, so it’s simple to install minimum Debian install – plus a All you need is a trenchcoat and
this hacker’s toolkit on proper DIY whole lot more. You can install some RGB, and you can be the hero of
hacker hardware. LibreOffice, GIMP and Steam without your own cyber action movie.
Unfortunately, Pis are in short too much trouble. But that’s not what
supply, so we had to make do with Kali is about. Even without its killer suite of ethical hacking
installing Kali the old-fashioned and The central tool suite of Kali has tools, Kali is the ice-cold epitome of style and
proper way: on a virtual machine. You been more or less the same since its substance, which is as easy to use as you’d expect
can also install Kali on WSL, as a live inception, but there are refinements in from a Debian derivative.
USB, in a docker container, as a this latest release. Particularly Nate Drake
vagrant image, as a ready-to-go app on notable are updates to the wireless -------
various cloud providers, or even on firmware, and better wardriving

47
 LABS

macOS 10.15 or later | US$19.90/year | protectstar.com

CAMERA GUARD FOR MAC

Lock down your Mac with ease.
You can choose to There is a slightly case that malware exists and do need to be aware of.
restrict access for uncomfortable truth that can be a problem. If you have concerns about
any app to certain nobody can be absolutely sure The Mac platform is secure this, Protectstar makes Camera
days and times. that their webcam and but it’s not perfect, and just Guard, an app for Mac that can
microphone haven’t been because the little green light block your microphone and
compromised. While by the camera is not active webcam and also provide access
suggestions that government doesn’t mean you are 100 control for other apps installed
agencies may be spying on you percent safe. In our constantly on your system. Apple doesn’t
veer somewhat towards the connected world, cyber theft provide any way to completely
outlandish, it’s certainly the and spying are issues that we disable either kind of device,
short of taping them up which
is suboptimal. The interface is
pretty straightforward, with
camera and mic protection
simply on or off, and the option
to receive a notification if any
access attempts are made on
your camera.
You can set a whitelist of apps
that can access the camera so
you can ensure no hassles with
FaceTime or Zoom for example,
while still guarding for other
unauthorised usage. You can
also switch on Deep Detective
which apparently keeps watch
in a more aggressive way,
The app is able though the company doesn’t
to constantly explain this in detail, probably
monitor your Mac for reasons of security. This
for ransomware includes low-level constant
and other threats. scanning to guard against

48
 All access attempts
Camera Guard is surprisingly
are logged, and the
unobtrusive for an app that’s app can boot with
constantly monitoring your the system.
Mac’s hardware, and doesn’t
appear to place any significant
load on the system unlike
antivirus apps of old. The
camera and mic protection are
good to have if this is
something you worry about, but
the more general threat
scanning and the ability to
limit app use by schedule are
also things that will be useful.
In testing, we didn’t receive
any notifications about threats,
which is of course good since
that presumably means our
system is clean, but it’s nice to
have the peace of mind that
your Mac is protected, and
"Surprisingly unobtrusive for an app that’s indeed that nobody is
monitoring your Mac’s hardware" maliciously trying to access
your microphone or camera. It’s
sensibly priced too and doesn’t
ransomware and other nasties. straightforward to use and will use a subscription model,
A further option lets you block prevent a user being able to open though the price only gives you
the execution of Java files, which messaging apps or games for one year of updates.
can be a source of malware. example, if you are looking to
restrict their access. A granular
Restricted access option lets you set a schedule per
A slightly less alarmist feature, app, meaning you can control A slick way to lock down your
and one that will be useful for what times an app is able to be Mac’s hardware.
parents, is the ability to set a used. No messaging apps after Hollin Jones
PIN-controlled access list for bedtime would be a typical -------
apps. This is really example of this sort of thing.

49
 Finding gold in what was a very rocky
mountain of a year. Words by Ben Mansill,
Joel Burgess and Chris Szewczyk.

Welcome to a particularly interesting edition of The editorial teams here at APC, Tech Radar, PC
the Australian PC Awards. Unlike most years in Gamer and PC PowerPlay thoroughly enjoyed
tech which are clean, tidy periods where compiling these finalists, and then selecting the
everything runs smoothly and we all buy loads winners. It was a fascinating year with highs and
of nice new things, 2022 turned that upside down lows. The highs weren’t in short supply, it’s just
with one drama after another, all in a market that the lows exceeded the expected quota by an
where actual products you could buy were scarce, alarming amount.
expensive, or delayed. But, we have selected our winners and they are
This is not to say the actual products were duds clear to us as the best of the best. Read on and see
– au contraire – the tail end of 2022 in particular what got the big gongs, as well as what gear made
saw a spectacular period of new GPUs and CPUs, our finalist lists. Maybe you agree, maybe you
along with exciting new motherboard platforms. have differing opinions. That’s all good, 2022 was
DDR5 got its act together and became good, and a confusing year, but thanks to these 2023
affordable, laptops leapt into new realms of low Australian PC Awards the cream has been
power and high performance, and some standout separated and all the good stuff properly
new techs blew us away, like QD OLED monitors. rewarded.

50
 Motherboards BEST MOTHERBOARD MAKER
GIGABYTE AORUS
Gigabyte’s Aorus boards usually impress us with their
We were really spoiled for choice when it came to quality feature sets, good value for money and cooling
motherboards in 2022. Both AMD and Intel potential.
released new platforms meaning we had a huge HIGHLY COMMENDED: Asus, MSI
variety of boards to choose from. FINALISTS: Asus, Asrock, MSI, Gigabyte Aorus
In September, AMD released its AM5 platform,
which added support for DDR5 memory. High end BEST PREMIUM MOTHERBOARD
X670E boards were joined by X670, B650E and B650 GIGABYTE X670 AORUS ELITE AX
The X670 Aorus Elite AX stands out with its excellent
boards. Four chipsets? Actually, they all use the same
design and feature set. It offers everything you should
chip. It’s just that the X series uses two of them, while realistically need without the exorbitant price of the
the B series uses one. AMD says it intends to support flagship tier boards.
AM5 for several years to come. If it has a long life like HIGHLY COMMENDED:
AM4 did, then you can expect to be able to upgrade to Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
a Zen 5 or Zen 6 processor with just a BIOS flash. Asus ROG Strix Z790-I Gaming Wi-Fi
Just a month later, Intel released its 13th Generation FINALISTS: MSI MEG X670E Ace, Asus ROG Crosshair
X670E Hero, Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX, Asrock
CPU range accompanied by Z790 motherboards. Z790
X670E Taichi, MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk DDR4, Asrock
is more or less an evolution over Z690 with a better Z790 Steel Legend, Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master, Asus
I/O thanks to the inclusion of more PCIe 4.0 lanes. ROG Strix Z790-I Gaming Wi-Fi
This means Z790 boards typically have improved
support for high bandwidth devices and controllers, BEST VALUE MOTHERBOARD
including things like more PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots or MSI MAG B660M MORTAR MAX WIFI DDR4
things like USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 controllers. This is a very good motherboard in general, but its ability
Sadly, high quality motherboards are now to overclock a locked 12th Gen processor reminds us of
the days of overclocking budget CPUs to high end
expensive. It wasn’t long ago that a $500
performance levels. That’s real value.
motherboard was regarded as ultra-premium. Now, HIGHLY COMMENDED:
$500 is considered mid-range. Asus Prime B660M-A WiFi DDR4
But if you are prepared to pay, at least you can Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX
expect a high-quality product. Things like the power FINALISTS: MSI MAG B660 Tomahawk WIFI DDR4, Asus
delivery, cooling, USB port count and speeds and TUF Gaming B660 Plus Wi-Fi D4, Asrock B660 Pro RS,
support for faster M.2 drives mean you’ll have a Gigabyte B660I Aorus Pro DDR4, Asrock B650E PG
Riptide Wi-Fi DDR5, Gigabyte B650M Aorus Elite AX, MSI
motherboard that will happily power a system for
MAG B660M Mortar Max Wifi DDR4, Asus Prime
many years to come, no matter what you use a PC for. B660M-A Wi-Fi DDR4

Graphics BEST GRAPHICS CARD MAKER

MSI
When it comes to graphics cards, 2022 was very MSI consistently produces high quality graphics cards that
much a tale of two halves. offer an excellent blend of build quality, cooling ability, and
The first part of the year was dominated by the low noise levels without charging the Earth.
influence of crypto mining, covid fallout and ongoing HIGHLY COMMENDED: Asus, Sapphire
geopolitical concerns. That meant GPU pricing was FINALISTS: Asus, MSI, Gigabyte Aorus, Asrock, Sapphire,
simply ridiculous. Zotac, Powercolour
Once Ethereum shifted away from GPU mining,
things slowly returned to normal. Stocks consistently
BEST VALUE GRAPHICS CARD
MSI GEFORCE RTX 3050 GAMING X
appeared on shelves, prices dropped and PC gaming The MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming X stood out in a very
came back from its perilous position. tough market thanks to its excellent cooling and
With mining in the rear view mirror, the latter part shockingly good value for money.
of 2022 was genuinely exciting thanks to the release HIGHLY COMMENDED:
of Nvidia’s RTX 40 series and later on, AMD’s RX XFX Speedster MERC 308 RX 6650 XT
7900 series. Intel’s long gestating Arc cards also Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB
FINALISTS: MSI GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming X, Sapphire
made their debut, though they didn’t have the impact
Pulse Radeon RX 6400, MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT Gaming
Intel would have hoped for. X 8G, Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8GB, XFX
The RTX 4090 was unveiled in September. It Speedster MERC 308 RX 6650 XT, Gigabyte Radeon RX
retained peak mining era pricing, but if you were 6500 XT Eagle
prepared to pay, you were rewarded with the highest
performing GPU ever made. The RTX 4080 followed, BEST PREMIUM GRAPHICS CARD
and though it’s an excellent GPU, its popularity ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 4090 OC EDITION
suffered as a result of its high price. If you want the best, and don’t mind paying, then there’s
only one choice: The RTX 4090. Asus took a great GPU
The end of the year saw the release of AMD’s RX
and made it better.
7900 series. While the 7900 XTX couldn’t knock the HIGHLY COMMENDED:
4090 off of its perch, RX 7900s are still competitive Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X 24GB
options with both introducing chiplet technology to FINALISTS: Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090TI, Asus
consumer GPUs for the first time. ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC Edition, MSI GeForce RTX 4080
If 2022 was the year of high prices and high end 16GB Suprim X, Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC
cards, 2023 is looking better, with both companies Edition, Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X
24GB
(and perhaps Intel too) set to release compelling
mainstream options.

51
 BEST VALUE CPU
CORE I5 12400
The Core i5 12400 really punches above its weight,
CPU
delivering excellent performance at a genuinely
budget price. 2022 was a huge year for CPU releases.
HIGHLY COMMENDED The start of the year was dominated by the release of
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Intel’s mainstream 12th Generation range including
FINALISTS the excellent Core i5 12400. AMD also fleshed out its
Intel Core i5 12400F, AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, AMD Zen 3 range, with more affordable Ryzen 5000 series
Ryzen 5 5600, Intel Core i3 12100 CPUs. All of these CPUs were welcome at a time when
value for money was becoming a difficult thing to
find.
One of the highlights of the year, if not the last
BEST MID-RANGE CPU decade, was the release of the AMD Ryzen 7
INTEL CORE I5 13600K 5800X3D. Its stacked cache is very much cutting-
The i5 13600K is a stellar CPU. It’s an excellent edge technology. This CPU with its 96MB of L3 cache
choice for gaming, productivity or general use,
without needing too much power or requiring offered gamers in particular a very compelling
expensive cooling. upgrade option. Chip stacking is a big part of AMD
HIGHLY COMMENDED and Intel’s future plans.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D These were impressive and highly recommended
FINALISTS CPUs, but the big headlines were reserved for the
Intel Core i5 13600K, Intel Core i7 12700, AMD September launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series CPUs,
Ryzen 7 5800X3D and just a month later, Intel’s 13th Generation CPUs.
Both can be considered an evolution over their
predecessors, delivering generally better
BEST PREMIUM CPU performance and/or power efficiency. Intel increased
AMD RYZEN 9 7950X core counts across the range, negating the advantage
The 7950X narrowly takes out the win thanks to its AMD held for many years.
excellent all round performance, and doing so
without letting go of power efficiency. It wasn’t all cheers and high fives though. Both
HIGHLY COMMENDED companies generally increased their power
Intel Core i9 13900K consumption levels at each product tier which means
FINALISTS there’s a need for very good cooling to tame the faster
Intel Core i9 13900K, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X , AMD chips from both AMD and Intel.
Ryzen 7 7700X, AMD Ryzen 9 7900X

"The start of the year was dominated by the release of Intel’s mainstream
12th Generation range including the excellent Core i5 12400."

Storage
If 2022 was a big year for PC component releases, the
storage industry wasn’t so exciting.
That’s not to say PC storage isn’t faster and more affordable
at each capacity, it’s just that there wasn’t a product or
release that didn’t feel like an evolution of something that
came before. The best drives in 2022 weren’t necessarily
the fastest ones, but rather the ones that offered a good
balance of speed, capacity and value for money.
PCIe 4.0 drives saturated the market and more or less hit
their performance ceiling, at least in terms of sequential BEST INTERNAL BEST EXTERNAL
transfer speeds. With lots of competing brands, a high
speed M.2 drive became more affordable than ever – a win STORAGE MAKER STORAGE MAKER
WD SAMSUNG
for consumers. Western Digital introduced some excellent The field was flooded by fast external and
PCIe 3.0 M.2 drives became relegated to budget status. SSDs that offered great value for money portable storage devices, but Team
As they approached price parity with SATA drives, they – something we can all appreciate – while Samsung shone the brightest, as
became very good options for things like bulk media losing little performance to much more exemplified by the T7 Shield, which packs
storage or for storing space hogging game libraries. expensive drives. USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 NVMe performance into
Speaking of SATA, the humble hard drive isn’t going HIGHLY COMMENDED a very rugged enclosure with great
away any time soon. Large mechanical drives are still Samsung security features.
FINALISTS HIGHLY COMMENDED
much cheaper per gigabyte than flash solutions and they WD, Samsung, Silicon Power, MSI, Team Group
remain highly relevant. Kingston, PNY, Seagate, XPG FINALISTS
We expected PCIe 5.0 SSDs to launch in 2022, but sadly Team Group, WD, Seagate, Samsung,
they were nowhere to be found. Adata, SanDisk, PNY, LaCie

52
 Systems
2022 was the year of systems defying size expectations and breaking norms.
Whether it was Apple releasing a MacBook Air that’s more expensive than a number of MacBook Pro
devices, or Razer’s Blade 15 with a 3080 Ti that’s thinner and lighter than a LG Gram 16 2-in-1 and MacBook
Pro 16, today’s engineering is shrinking powerful components into unbelievably compact packages.
The fourth generation of NVMe PCIe SSDs ushered in practical read speeds over 7,000MB/s and write
speeds of more than 5,000MB/s. Rates that almost seem more like RAM transfer speeds than something
that you’d use to retrieve Word and OS files.
We saw a handful of OLED screens on approachably priced ultrabooks and many of the players at the top
end are introducing novel features like integrated glass trackpads, displays on the outside of laptops,
laptop screens that hinge like drawing tables, and others that have a whole second screen emerging from
the keyboard.
We reviewed laptops you have to assemble yourself from the ground up, and others that you have to tear
down to the most granular level to work out how they function.
Professional gamers can now expect their portable rig to offer 360Hz displays, while recreational gamers
can indulge in HDR games at high refresh rates on 1440P or even 4K screens if they don’t mind paying for it.
GPUs were a bit of a minefield again this year, with TDP Wattage and thermal dissipation capabilities
impacting performance significantly more than the label on the tin. Even then wattage didn’t translate
perfectly into performance either, so it’s more critical than ever to read a review of the laptop you want to
buy to understand its performance.
Intel’s 12th gen laptop processors shifted to a high core count dual-performance-and-efficiency core array
structure that dramatically improved performance across the board, Apple tweaked its original processor
with new memory bandwidth and AI capabilities in the M2 and Nvidia introduced Optimus to greatly
improve the experience of trying to optimise battery life and performance on gaming laptops.

BEST VALUE LAPTOP OR 2-IN-1 BEST REMIUM LAPTOP BEST GAMING LAPTOP BEST DESKTOP PC MAKER
MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP GO 2
Offering enough power to smoothly run
OR 2-IN-1 RAZER BLADE 15
As thin as the LG Gram 16-inch 2-in-1 and
PC CASE GEAR
This win comes primarily from PCCG’s
APPLE MACBOOK AIR 2022 (M2)
Windows 11 in a sleek touchscreen laptop Solid M2 performance improvements, a 100g lighter than a MacBook Air 16, even quality of service, build quality and testing
with current networking and connectivity sleek design overhaul, brighter and larger with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti inside regime for customer builds before
specs for $1k is a pretty great deal. screen, returned Magsafe charger, and an of it. shipping. Their range might not be the
HIGHLY COMMENDED unmatched battery life, all at a reasonable HIGHLY COMMENDED widest or very cost-effective, but you’ll
Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook price. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 get a great system and be well looked
Framework Laptop HIGHLY COMMENDED Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE after if you do buy one.
FINALISTS Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio FINALISTS HIGHLY COMMENDED
Acer Enduro Urban N3, Dynabook Tecra Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED MSI GE76 Raider, Asus ROG Zephyrus Apple
A40-K, Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, Asus Zenbook 14X Space Edition G15, Razer Blade 17 (2022), Alienware Aftershock PC
Framework Laptop, MSI Prestige 14Evo FINALISTS x14, Razer Blade 15, Asus ROG Strix Scar FINALISTS
A12M, Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, MSI G76 Stealth, Microsoft Surface 17 SE, Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, Aorus Apple, MSI, HP, Mwave, Leader, PC Case
Dynabook E10-S, Microsoft Surface Go 3, Laptop Studio, Asus Zephyrus M16, Dell 17, Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, Asus ROG Gear, Intel, Alienware, Nzxt, Lenovo, Acer,
Acer Aspire 5, Dell Inspiron 15, Acer XPS 13 Plus, Apple MacBook Air M2, Dell Zephyrus m16, Asus ROG Flow Z13, Asus Aftershock PC
Chromebook Spin 311, Asus Vivobook 15 XPS 15 (9520), LG Gram 2-in-1 16”, Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, Lenovo Legion 5i
Zenbook 14X Space Edition, Fujitsu Pro Gen 7, Dell G15, Dell Inspiron 16 Plus
Lifebook U9312, Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X, 7620
Asus Zephyrus Duo 16, HP Envy x360
13.3-inch 2-in-1, Microsoft Surface Pro
9, Microsoft Surface Laptop 5, Asus
Vivobook Pro 16X

"2022 was the year of systems defying size expectations and breaking norms.
Whether it was Apple releasing a MacBook Air that’s more expensive than a
number of MacBook Pro devices, or Razer’s Blade 15 with a 3080 Ti that’s thinner
and lighter than a LG Gram 16 2-in-1 and MacBook Pro 16, today’s engineering is
shrinking powerful components into unbelievably compact packages. "

53
 Peripherals and components
Through 2022 the transition from DDR4 to DDR5 as the new standard for most
new motherboards took place, and initial scarcity and high pricing has given way
to better value, lower timings and wide availability.
Air CPU coolers continue to hold strong in the face of the ongoing AIO assault,
and our Labs were dominated by one company that we always thought of as just
being all about value, but the quality was a very happy surprise and shows you
don’t need to spend over $100 to cool a premium CPU.
Wi-Fi 6-routers really matured in 2022 and a few incredible models
transformed the market. Top of the pile was Synology’s RT6600ax router. The
normally NAS-known company pushed hard with its flagship Wi-Fi 6 router and
we quickly saw why.
The big news in monitors is QD OLED. As distinct from the non-QD OLEDs that
first appeared, adding the Quantum Dot layer defeated OLED’s big weakness,
being a lack of brightness.
Keyboards, mice and headphones saw no huge evolutions in the last year, still,
there are occasionally some interesting designs though style drives this segment
more than others.

"The big news in monitors is QD OLED. As distinct from the

non-QD OLEDs that first appeared, adding the Quantum Dot layer
defeated OLED’s big weakness, being a lack of brightness."

MEMORY MAKER COOLING PRODUCT MONITOR KEYBOARD

G.SKILL BE QUIET PURE ROCK 2 FX ALIENWARE AW3423DW QD-OLED STEELSERIES APEX PRO MINI
G.Skill can always be relied upon to push An air cooler? Yes! At a time when it This Alienware monitor features a The SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Wireless is
the boundaries of memory technology. seemed AIO liquid coolers would Samsung panel with the first combination brimming with features, from its dual
But it’s not all about raw speed. The completely take over, this Be Quiet of brightness boosting Quantum Dot actuation capable keys to its
company has some great value budget champion came along and technology and contrast enhancing OLED customizable actuation points.
mainstream options too. impressed us with its cooling ability and to make an unbeatably vibrant ultra-wide HIGHLY COMMENDED
HIGHLY COMMENDED excellent value for money. screen with a 175 Hz refresh rate. WQHD Corsair K70 RGB Pro
Team Group HIGHLY COMMENDED resolution, DCI-P3 colour and a 1ms DeepCool KB500
FINALISTS DeepCool LS720 (360mm) AIO response time round out a pretty perfect FINALISTS
PNY, G.Skill, Team Group, Corsair, FINALISTS feature set. DeepCool KB500, Corsair K70 RGB Pro,
Kingston, Adata, Geil Deep Cool CK560, Deep Cool AK400, HIGHLY COMMENDED Asus ROG Strix Scope RX TKL Wireless
DeepCool LS720 (360mm) AIO, DeepCool Benq Zowie 360Hz XL2566K Deluxe, Corsair K70 Pro Mini Wireless,
LE500 CPU Cooler, Be Quiet Pure Loop 2 Samsung M8 Smart Monitor SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini, Alienware
FX, Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 FX, Thermalright FINALISTS AW510K
Peerless Assassin 120 SE MSI Optix MAG281URF, BenQ Mobiuz
EX3210R, Apple Studio Display, Benq
GW2785TC, Alienware AW3423DW
QD-OLED, Samsung M8 Smart Monitor,
Acer Predator XB323QK,
Prism+ C315 Max, Dell 32 4K UHD
Gaming Monitor G3223Q, Prism+ PG270
Ultra, Samsung 55” Odyssey Ark, LG
UltraGear 48GQ900, Benq Zowie 360Hz
XL2566K, LG 27GP950-B

54
54
MOUSE GAMING HEADSET BEST RESELLER
LOGITECH LIFT VERTICAL MOUSE STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA PRO PC CASE GEAR
Not only does the wireless Logitech Lift With its multi-device-and-platform In a year where GPU stock was hard to keep
ergonomic mouse put our hand in a more connectivity, long battery life, amazing available, for gamers PCCG seemed to always have
natural, neutral position to prioritise comfort, and that excellent sound quality some stock available along with extra SKUs or
well-being, but it also offers a lot of that Arctis headsets are known for, this is different models that weren’t available elsewhere,
productivity-minded features. the one to get. plus its PC builds are always competitive and
HIGHLY COMMENDED HIGHLY COMMENDED well-balanced.
Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro JBL Quantum 610 Wireless headset HIGHLY COMMENDED
FINALISTS FINALISTS BPCtech
Logitech Lift Vertical Mouse, Razer SteelSeries Arctis 7+, JBL Quantum 610, Mwave
Huntsman Mini Analog, Nzxt Lift, Logitech Asus ROG Delta S Wireless, Alienware FINALISTS
MX Master 3S, Corsair Katar Elite Tri-Mode AW920H, JBL Quantum 810, Aftershock PC, Allied Gaming PC, Austin, BPCtech,
Wireless, Microsoft Modern Mobile SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro, HyperX Cloud Centre Com, Computer Alliance, CPL Online, IJK, JW,
Mouse, Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro, Asus Alpha Wireless Mwave, PC Case Gear, PLE, Scorptec, TI Computers,
ROG Chakram X Umart, MSY

During the year of the Great Graphics

Card Drought, Australian resellers
did it tough.
The struggle to get stock was one issue,
while keeping customers with orders
placed informed of an often heavily
delayed delivery process was another
thing they had to face – all while doing
their best to get new customers in an era of
stock scarcity and pricing inflation.
It wasn’t just graphics cards, but that
situation typified the challenges resellers
faced in 2022. And, we were so impressed
with how most of them handled it.
Communication and transparency was
great to see, with many resellers having
daily updated reports on stock and
expected delays.
Through all of that they also had to keep
CASE ROUTER at it with the regular business of building,
FRACTAL DESIGN NORTH SYNOLOGY RT6600AX selling and supporting new PCs and other
Combining a unique wood-and-mesh front The Synology RT6600ax has every router gear. It was a tough year, but by and large
and lots of airflow-focused features at an feature a smart home or SMB could need they shone, and our hats off to the people
affordable price, Fractal’s North is a including the ability to create 15 different at the front line doing their best to keep
fantastic case with performance that’s SSIDs with different Firewall policies. It’s customers happy.
just as impressive as its looks. one of the fastest Wi-Fi routers we’ve ever
HIGHLY COMMENDED tested – with excellent range, too.
Nzxt H7 Flow HIGHLY COMMENDED
FINALISTS TP-Link Deco XE75 AXE5400
Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB, Be Quiet Pure Synology WRX560
Base 500 FX case, Nzxt H7 Flow, Cooler Draytek Vigor2927ax "The struggle to get stock was
Master Cosmos C700M, Corsair 1000D,
Fractal Design North
FINALISTS
Asus ROG GT-AX6000, TP Link Deco
one issue, while keeping
X73-DSL, Synology RT6600ax, Fritz!Box customers with orders placed
4060, Mercusys AX1800, TP Link WiFi 6E
Deco, Asus Zen WiF XT12 Pro, Draytek informed of an often heavily
Vigor2927ax, Synology Router WRX560,
Draytek Vigor2865ax
delayed delivery process was
another thing they had to face
– all while doing their best to
get new customers in an era of
stock scarcity and pricing
inflation."

55
 Excellence
For the person, product or technology that advanced the PC more
than any other in 2022

INTEL’S 12TH-GEN MOBILE CPUS

Despite all the supply chain issues and economic chaos, tech companies were actually able
to deliver a wide range of seriously-impressive novel technologies in 2022. The APCA 2023
Excellence award is for the person, product or technology that progressed the PC the most in
2022 and whether it’s AMD’s vertically stacked CPU V-Cache or RDNA 3 chiplet GPU
architecture; Nvidia’s advances to powerful GPUs and next generation DLSS; or Apple’s
continuation of it’s RISC processor range with the M1 Ultra, which outperformed all but one
consumer CPU on the market at launch; there’s no doubting that 2022 was huge for PC
developments.
There were even more developments in updated Wi-Fi 6E networking technologies, the
living room PC got perhaps its biggest flood of novel large-format monitors, and new game
game streaming technologies all contributed to help people expand where and how they can
use their computers. But while all these technologies were significant, there was one
technology that made a bigger difference to the overall PC landscape than any other.
Intel’s 12th generation notebook processors adopted a dual-type core structure, consisting
of single-threaded efficiency cores and hyper-threaded performance cores that dramatically
increased the number of cores Intel used in notebook CPUs and facilitated between nine and
37 percent performance bumps on chips all the way up to the Intel Core i9-12900HK. This is a
major shift from the 10 to 15 percent year-on-year performance jumps we are used to seeing
and allowed Intel to convincingly outpace AMD’s offerings and compete, in many ways, with
Apple’s processors.
Intel is still the backbone of the vast majority of laptops out there, and so the major leap
forward in 12th Gen CPU performance and efficiency effectively raises the bar for all
notebooks in the space from lightweight tablet 2-in-1s to premium gaming workstations.

"Intel is still the backbone of the vast majority of laptops out there, and so the
major leap forward in 12th Gen CPU performance and efficiency effectively
raises the bar for all notebooks in the space from lightweight tablet 2-in-1s to
premium gaming workstations."

HIGHLY COMMENDED FINALISTS

Microsoft PC Game Pass AMD Ryzen 5800X3D / QD OLED monitors Intel 12th-Gen Mobile CPUs,
QD OLED monitors V-Cache Apple M2 CPU Microsoft PC Game Pass
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D / Nvidia RTX 4090 Wi-Fi 6E AMD Chiplet GPU
V-Cache Nvidia DLSS 3 10GbE LAN Apple M1 Ultra CPU

THE 2023 AUSTRALIAN PC AWARDS IS PROUDLY PRESENTED BY

56
 "There’s simply no weak area in any
segment of Asus’ wide range of
products. It covers so many different
areas and yet is able to deliver a big
range of high quality gear giving
consumers great choice, and a
knowledge that whatever you buy from
Asus will be well designed and made,
usually with price-point options to meet
every need and budget."
Epic fail
2022's biggest loser

NFTs
What a banner year 2022 was for things that
flopped. It’s hard to recall a year richer in
failure than 2022. So much so, that we have
introduced the Epic Fail Award for the very first
time. Our shortlist is a mind-boggling
collection of promises made and not delivered
upon. It includes terribly unfair things that
happened to Australians. It is a finalist list that
has comedy, and tragedy.
For some of these, we could all see the
writing on the wall, and it was just a matter of
time before the implosion. NFTs and the

Gold
Metaverse count among those. In Australia we
got two huge data hacks with Optus and
Medibank, but we didn’t get the Steam Deck…
The company that impressed us the most, we couldn’t get a graphics card without paying
overall, in 2022 stupid money, and we briefly got an RTX 4080
12GB card before it was swiftly ‘unlaunched’ in
ASUS a comically poor bit of marketing strategy from
Nvidia.
But the gong goes to NFTs. It’s rare that
The challenges 2022 imposed on a company
something so absurd has any degree of success,
delivering good consumer tech in 2022 were big ones.
yet a great many people had faith that a picture
On one hand, we had all the excitement of new-gen
that’s not actually a picture has value. Jimmy
products being launched that will shape PC
Fallon and Paris Hilton got sued for spruiking
performance for the next couple of years, but on the
them, Donald Trump got in on the action with a
other, supply chain disruptions affected factory
shamelessly low effort set of NFTs, and the
output, and the cost of making stuff and getting it
market has now completely crashed. Well done
shipped around the world.
NFTs, thank you for the laughs, and we’re sorry
Meanwhile, these companies had to continue the
if any of you lost money on these things.
pace of innovation and deliver value. All a tough
Taking the Highly Commended is Mr Elon
situation, no doubt.
Musk. 2022 was one cluster of muck after
As we reviewed the potential winners and
another for Musk. His badly botched Twitter
discussed what did well, it became crystal clear that
takeover is the main reason he’s taking a prize
there was one company that succeeded more than
today, but we can’t help stare in awe at how he
any other. It’s the same company that has won this
also alienated his customer and fan base
award in the past, and it’s Asus.
through the year by embracing extreme
There’s simply no weak area in any segment of
political views, and burning all the fame and
Asus’ wide range of products. It covers so many
goodwill he accumulated over the last decade
different areas and yet is able to deliver a big range of
in one spectacular fall from grace in a few short
high quality gear giving consumers great choice, and
months.
a knowledge that whatever you buy from Asus will be
well designed and made, usually with price-point
options to meet every need and budget. HIGHLY COMMENDED
Asus scored more finalist nominations than any Elon Musk
other company here, and by a huge margin. That’s FINALISTS
testament to the breadth and quality we’ve come to NFTs
The Metaverse
expect from Asus. GPU pricing and availability
Optus & Medibank hacks
Elon Musk
HIGHLY COMMENDED No Steam Deck in Australia yet
MSI Google Stadia
Intel Crypto currency
Microsoft Nvidia RTX 4080 12GB Unlaunching

57
 COVER
FEATURE

DON’T
BIN IT
!

COVER FEATURE

Don’t let old kit clutter up your house or go to e-waste. Computer
repair shop owner Lee Grant shows how to put it to good use.
58
Never let it be said that APC doesn’t
bring harmony to the world. This
one article could clear clutter from
your life, improve the quality of
someone else’s and help save the
planet from impending ecological
annihilation. Well, you can’t
accuse us of lacking ambition!
We’ve got ten inspirational ideas
about what to do with all that old
gear you’ve been squirrelling
away. We want to help you get the
maximum value from your
purchases by re-purposing them in
ways that can save you money.
Why buy an external hard drive
when a cheap caddy and
screwdriver could turn your old
laptop drive into the same thing
for a fraction of the cost, for
example?
We have information on how to
donate your kit safely to people ChromeOS Flex is Google’s latest Above: ChromeOS manufacturer and ChromeOS Flex
who are living in digital poverty, as freebie and can be easily installed Flex works almost as the product. The installer takes
well as opportunities to blow onto PCs and Intel Macs, turning flawlessly on old a long time to create, but once it’s
things up in your spare time. By them into extremely capable PCs and Macs. finished, it will install Flex
the end, you’ll see that buying new Chromebook-like devices with extremely rapidly, giving you free
isn’t always necessary, and as the access to Google Docs, Drive and entry to the Google eco-system.
environmental damage of most all the Chrome extensions you The vast majority of
products is wreaked during the could desire. What you don’t get is Chromebooks are low-powered
manufacturing process, we all access to the Google Play Store, but devices, so seeing Flex thrive on a
need to find ways to re-use what in an increasingly browser-based spec designed to run Windows or
we already own. Get ready to bring world, this won’t be an issue for macOS for the first time is as
that pile of junk that you stub your many users and you certainly surprising as watching grandad
toe on three times a week back shouldn’t see it as a barrier to this clamber out of his chair and run a
from the dead. very capable OS. four-minute mile. Google has
If you fancy a dabble, open worked hard to make it compatible
REVIVE OLD PCS WITH Chrome on a working machine with a vast range of hardware and
1 CHROMEOS FLEX and download and run the I’ve found its device detection
It used to be obligatory within Chromebook Recovery Utility success rate to be reassuringly
these sorts of features to advocate (tinyurl.com/APC518chrome) high.
installing Linux onto an old extension, which will create a
machine, but at the risk of starting bootable USB installer. This AN ANDROID
a riot, the quirks of penguin power software creates installers for 2 JUKEBOX
are not for the faint-hearted. How most Chromebooks, so when the It can be tricky to know what to do
Below: AutoSync
about an intuitive lightweight OS, software asks to identify your turns your old with an old mobile. One reason
built by one of the world’s largest Chromebook, choose Google phone into a they fall out of use is that they stop
companies, that actually works? ChromeOS Flex as the music machine. receiving updates and support
from the manufacturers, which
makes them riskier to use, but also
increases the chances of app
updates failing.
This tip was inspired by a recent
conversation with the teenage son
of a customer about their music
habits. I’d expected lots of
subscriptions and streaming, but it
seems there’s a growing movement
of fans who are dissatisfied with
the quality of music on streaming
services or have been moved to
begin purchasing albums after
hearing how little some artists
receive for their work via
streaming. In order to “stick it to
the man”, they’re reusing old tech
in an online/offline hybrid mode
circa 2002.
Repurposing an old mobile to
play music is made much simpler

59
 COVER
FEATURE

Controllers. Connect a USB-C cable

to the controller (the PC end can be
USB-A or USB-C) and Steam will
work out what’s going on. Hit
Controller Settings and select
Generic Gamepad Configuration
Support, ensuring that the options
for PlayStation, Xbox and so on are
unticked.
You can also calibrate the
controller from here. Select the Big
Picture Configuration or Desktop
Configuration options to remap
the controller to work as you’d like
it in these modes.
“That’s no good,” I hear you cry.
“I game while lounging on the
couch, covered in crisps. My PC is
15ft away, I don’t want a cable!” I
hear you, but although Stadia
controllers are wireless, Google
reserved Bluetooth for setup,
preferring to function via Wi-Fi.
This poses a problem that we’ll
come to later, but I have a wire-free
(ish) solution. A clever YouTuber
called LateStageTech (tinyurl.
thanks to an app called AutoSync. Above: Stadia is on prevent sensitive client data from com/APC518latestage) has
It’s not free, but $9.99 buys you a the way out, but the cross-contaminating on a single developed an Android app called
lifetime licence to simply sync controller can still machine. Wiredless Pro. 
folders between your Android be put to good use. If you own a NAS or media Download the required PC
phone and some other storage, server, then old drives are an software (tinyurl.com/
such as a cloud service or FTP obvious source of cheap storage, APC518server) and run
setup. There are other ways of but please don’t think this all ViGEmBusSetup in either 32- or
transporting files to and from an relates to SATA connected drives. 64-bit flavour to suit your system.
Android device but AutoSync is As people upgrade small M.2 SSDs, When you’ve finished doing that,
smooth and fast, and once the they can be re-used in exactly the dive into the corresponding
transfer is done, the phone can go same way, but with much greater WiredlessServer folder and run
offline with the music accessible to speed. WiredlessServer.exe, which starts
your media player of choice (mine an emulator, fooling the PC into
is Musicolet). GAME ON WITH believing that an Xbox 360
AutoSync isn’t only about music. 4 YOUR GOOGLE STADIA controller is attached. Also open
You can use it to load movies onto CONTROLLER will be a CMD window listing an IP
the tablets for the kids to play via If you were a Stadia subscriber, address (take a note of this).
VLC, or MP3 or M4B audiobooks you’d be forgiven for hurling the Connect the Stadia controller to
via Listen Audiobook Player. With controller into a cupboard when the Android phone via USB, open
an easy method to sync offline Google announced it was pulling the Wiredless Pro app, select
files, streaming and subscription the service from January 2023. But Dinput and enter the IP address
services may not seem so drag it out and dust it off, as it’s not before pressing Connect. Stadia is
appealing. dead yet. You can repurpose the wired to the app, which is
Stadia controller for PC gaming, wirelessly linked to the emulated
PUT DRIVES TO WORK and there are a few ways to do it. Xbox 360 controller, and the PC
3 I’ll wager that many APC With a bit of tweaking, Steam can’t tell the difference.
readers have at least one unused Right: Old hard will identify the Stadia controller Although the Stadia controller
drives can be
hard drive sitting in a cupboard, so and allow you to use it on its vast remains wired to the phone, via
repurposed to
let’s put them to work. Icy Box provide storage. array of PC and Mac titles. Launch the magic of Wi-Fi, the app talks to
(icybox.de) has a stack of products (BY-SA 3.0). Steam, then go to Settings, then the PC, creating a wireless
to connect an abandoned drive to a controller that’s as responsive as
PC or Mac. A basic USB-3 Caddy is using a cable. During my tests, the
the simplest way of creating an Stadia’s trigger buttons didn’t
external hard drive, which can work, but you can remap buttons
always be used for backup, file and work around that for some
transfers or the repository for games. Just remember that the app
Windows File History (tinyurl. must be active for it to work, but I
com/APC518backup). bet you’ve got an old Android
The German firm Inateck device that you can harvest for this
(inateck.com) manufactures a vast one.
array of docks, which enable For Steam-less games that
hot-swappable access to drives. require button remapping, give
Some of my clients use these to REWASD (rewasd.com) a try.

60
Stadia controllers were designed
for their own platform and
nothing else. Hopefully Google
engineers will be able to release
software to open up the
controller’s Bluetooth connectivity
to make them compliant with
many more platforms.

THE TINKERING RIG

5 Getting hands on with
hardware is not something
everyone gets to do. A learning
machine is about exploring the
screws, clips and chips, getting up
close to the ins and outs of
hardware. Have you ever taken
apart a laptop? Fancy reballing a
GPU? A learning machine is one
that you can strip down in order to
experience the unbridled thrill of
replacing components without
being concerned if the magic
smoke escapes.
The art of repair is becoming
fashionable (and, hopefully,
profitable) again, but you shouldn’t
learn how to perform a voltage
injection and de-solder
components on anything other
than a machine where it doesn’t
matter if you break it. Although
I’ve repaired tens of thousands of
PCs, I’m mindful that repair can go
horrifically wrong, and the best
preventative is experience. I
implore you all to treat yourselves
to an iFixit tool kit (tinyurl.com/
APC518fixit) and learn how to fix
things. You’ll be amazed at how
often you can bring tech back from
the dead.

MAKE A MEDIA SERVER

6 You’d be forgiven for
thinking that media servers are
unnecessary in a marketplace
bulging with streaming services,
but rolling your own system has
much to commend it. With a
media server, you can become your
own streaming service, and it’s the maximise my Core i5-4200 test Top: Create your with albums, which is where Plex
perfect project for an old PC. machine, I’ve opted for Ubuntu own media server requires some thought. There’s a
My choice would be Plex (plex. and downloaded PMS straight with Plex. whole section (tinyurl.com/
tv) as it’s easy to set up, can be from the software store. Once Above: Taking apart APC518plex) about organising
accessed by almost every type of installed, simply access PMS from an old PC is a great media to give Plex the best chance
way to learn how it
device you can imagine and a browser at http:// of identifying or cataloguing your
all works.
handles movies, TV, music, photos localhost:32400/manage and files and what to do when it finds
and video. Plex Media Server (PMS) create a Plex Web account. Plex four different versions of Star
has such low system requirements Web is a catch-all login, allowing Wars.
that it can be run on a Raspberry you to manage the server from To access your PMS, there are
Pi, but if your PMS will be different devices and sync user apps available for Apple TV,
simultaneously pinging media to accounts. Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV,
multiple devices, a bit more poke Plex prompts you to create your Roku, iOS, Android, most Smart
would be useful. media libraries by asking where TVs and probably Etch-a-Sketch.
PMS can be added to Mac, the data is to be stored and, well, Plex is designed so you can access
Windows or Linux, and if you’re that’s about it for a basic setup. your media from any location, but
wondering what to do with that These settings can be tweaked access from outside your network
old NAS box, there are packages later, so I retreated to Ubuntu and can easily be turned off in Settings
that will run on many brands. To loaded my Music library folder | Remote Access.

61
 COVER
FEATURE

Above: Your old kit Plex has a barrel of other DONATE OLD TECH It requires a twin-core 64-bit Intel
can help relieve features, enhanced by its Plex Pass 7 Donating tech to someone or AMD CPU, 8GB RAM, Ethernet
digital poverty. subscription which unlocks even who needs it can be life changing. (no Wi-Fi), 16GB or larger SSD boot
more, including device downloads, Figures from the Digital Poverty device and storage to host the files.
parental controls and Plex-amp, a Alliance state that one in five Just note that TrueNAS’s multiple-
custom player for audiophiles. children who were home schooled drive storage pools require hard
Although the streaming platforms during the pandemic didn’t have drives of the same capacity.
claim to offer “what you want, access to an appropriate device, Download the .iso (www.truenas.
when you want”, media content is such as a laptop. Before anything com/download-truenas-core/)
frequently pulled and alternative leaves your hands, secure yourself and either create a bootable USB
versions of your favourites, by erasing the drives with Killdisk using Rufus (rufus.ie) or burn a
missing that bit you really like, are Free for macOS, Linux and bootable DVD and use that to boot
substituted in. Plex puts the Windows (killdisk.com) or by the machine. Select Boot TrueNAS
control back into your hands. performing factory resets on Installer, then go and make a cup of
APC Health Warning: tablets, phones and consoles. tea while the magic happens.
Obsessively cataloguing a digital Norton (tinyurl.com/ When the Console Setup window
Above: Building a media collection can lead to APC518norton) has an excellent appears, select Install/Upgrade,
NAS device isn’t missed meals and family list, of organisations that can help choosing the drive from which
as tricky as you arguments. Please tag responsibly. find new owners for your usable TrueNAS will boot from (that is, not
might think. tech. There are people and families the drives for your storage pool).
countrywide stuck in digital You’ll be reminded that everything
poverty, so ask around locally at on the drive is going to be wiped, so
schools and community centres to don’t try this on your day-to-day PC,
see if your unused kit can be useful but the old machine you don’t know
to someone else. what to do with.
Once you’ve entered a root
BUILD YOUR (administrator) password, choose a
8 OWN TRUENAS boot mode that matches your BIOS
For most of us, data storage is a setup, then create a 16GB swap file.
messy business with files strewn The system will thrash away and
across drives as if a hand-grenade demand a reboot. Once this
has gone off in a filing cabinet. happens, select Boot TrueNAS (or
Multiple drives merely multiply wait five seconds) and the machine
the pain. If this sounds eerily will tidy up a few things then drop
familiar, then network-attached into Console Setup, displaying an IP
storage (NAS) is something I’d address. This is the gateway into
encourage you to consider. the NAS for other machines on the
TrueNAS is a storage OS capable network, so entering root as the
of creating a scalable, professional- username along with the password
grade NAS system on modest you chose during setup will reveal
hardware. TrueNAS is known for the option-packed Web-UI.
its enterprise products, but Core The TrueNAS website is
(formally FreeNAS) is free and packed with video tutorials,
retains key features such as the documentation, a community
OpenZFS file system, snapshots, forum and a Discord channel to
replications, enhanced security, help you configure and tweak,
virtualisations and plugins. which is fortunate as there isn’t

62
enough space in APC to scratch the
surface.
NAS systems work how you
want them to. Once a storage pool
is defined, you have nothing more
than a large external drive, but
click on System then Cloud
Credentials to get TrueNAS to talk
to a stack of cloud providers
including Amazon, Mega,
Microsoft OneDrive and Google
Drive. Dig around in Tasks, then
Cloud Sync Tasks, and your files
could sync to the cloud while
you’re asleep. Fancy a bit more?
Two minutes in Plugins and I’d
installed a Minecraft server and a
Drupel webdev setup. Not bad for
free!

THE SOFTWARE
9 TEST BED
We always pack APC with great
tips designed to help you squeeze official solder-machines on sale, if humanity always shrugged
the most from a machine, but it but they’re difficult to build. Take when faced with difficulty, then
may not always be convenient to yourself to the r/hackintosh group Michelangelo would have only
hijack the family laptop to get on Reddit (reddit.com/r/ Above: Give Kitty painted the floor of the Sistine
hands on with our hot list of hackintosh) and read through the iPad experience Chapel. A Hackintosh is both a
recommended Python debuggers. their exhaustive FAQ. with Cat Games. technical challenge and a symbol
What you need is an experiment Thanks to Acidanthera’s of rebellion. Vive la révolution.
machine. A box purely for messing OpenCore platform (github.com/
about with, one which can be acidanthera/OpenCorePkg), it’s REBOOT THE IPAD
thrashed, crashed and rebuilt, now possible to build a fully 11 With over 500 million iPads
while you’re safe knowing that the operational and robust Hackintosh sold, there’s a chance you have
day-to-day machine will still boot with many standard PC parts and one wedged in the back of a
in the morning. run most versions of macOS, right drawer doing nothing. Why not
Obviously, it’s possible to do up to Monterey (version 12). put their splendid screens to work
marvellous things on virtual The legality of Hackintoshes is as a second monitor for a laptop?
machines, but sometimes life is interesting as they break the Splashtop Wired XDisplay
too short for faffing about with macOS EULA, which basically (splashtop.com) is compatible
serial port emulations. If you’ve states that you can’t run any Apple with iPads that didn’t get past
always wanted to try coding, then OS unless it’s on Apple hardware or 2013’s iOS 7. A standard USB
this is for you. Use one to learn a VM running on Apple hardware. charging cable allows Apple’s
Linux or upscale VHS into 4K Hackintoshers argue that it’s not finest to extend or mirror a PC or
while finally becoming the illegal because they download Mac at up to 1080p and 60fps. It’s
champion at the Shufflepuck Café legal software from Apple, or use Below: not free, costing around $20, but it
and perfecting that tricky their own Macs and the devices are Hackintoshes works well, and an iPad doesn’t
three-point lighting setup in for teaching and personal use. are non-Apple add much weight to your laptop
Blender. Old tech offers so many Either way, it raises questions machines that, with bag.
possibilities to learn something about the rights of ownership that a lot of tweaking, Taking a sharp left turn, we
new. are complex and challenging, and run macOS have Cat Games, which are...
games for cats. There are many of
ANNOY APPLE these in the App store, but they all
10 BY BUILDING A HACKINTOSH essentially let Tiddles loose on
You’re a APC reader. I know you your old iPad, batting the
dabble with technology, seeking meandering fish or squeaky mice
the euphoric feeling when that scurry across on the screen.
something finally works. This tip For little ones with fewer than
can do that. It’s not for the four legs, there’s Luna, which
faint-hearted or for those that are converts two iPads or iPhones into
easily flummoxed and frustrated, a baby monitor. It works over
but the merest mention of the word mobile and Wi-Fi and Luna claims
Hackintosh can bring even the it will run on anything newer
hardiest techie to their knees. than an iPhone 5 or second-gen
In simple terms, Hackintoshes iPad (or iPad mini). The core
are non-Apple machines that, with functions are free, but there are
a lot of tweaking, run macOS. Like optional in-app purchases. Just
desktop PCs, they’re repairable, don’t mix the Luna iPad up with
adaptable and upgradable, the cat’s, otherwise you’re in for
providing an alternative to the one heck of a night.

63
FEATURE

FEATURE - PART 4

(R)evolution of Portable Audio:

The world goes digital

Not even the Sony Walkman could shield analog audio from the future, but the key technology that launched
the Compact Disc first appeared in a telephone during World War II. Darren Yates explains.

Alec Reeves had sadly passed away

by the time global tech giants
Sony and Philips jointly launched
the Compact Disc in 1982. The
Above: Compact optical disc that brought the world
Disc Digital Audio digital audio for the first time may
was the right well seem to be an invention of its
product at the right time, but digital audio more
time (Public broadly, and the Compact Disc in
Domain).
Right: The first
particular, owe much of their
commercial digital success to technology that was
audio recorder was first used during World War II to
an adapted secure secret phone calls between
Betamax VCR British Prime Minister Winston
(Image ciredit: Churchill and U.S. President
Franny Wentzel, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today,
CC BY-SA 3.0). digital audio seemingly permeates
almost every technology device,
but like a good many inventions, it
owes its existence to engineers
whose names deserve greater
recognition.

Pulse Coded Modulation

The son of a surveyor, Reeves was
born in Surrey, U.K. in 1902 and
graduated as an electrical
engineer from Imperial College, background hiss in audio converted into an analog electrical
London at just 19. He moved to (improving the Signal-to-Noise signal and transmitted, whether
Paris four years later to work in Ratio or SNR), was a key travelling hundreds or thousands
the laboratories of the fast- battleground during the 1960s of kilometres over cable. However,
growing International Telephone and 70s, leading to new noise- over such distances, that signal
and Telegraph (ITT). Reeves reduction technologies such as would drop in strength and
amassed an impressive 82 patents Dolby NR and dbx. But it was a require repeater stations at
during his lifetime, yet it’s battle first fought way back in the regular intervals to amplify that
debatable that any were more 1930s around the world as signal back up before heading off
influential to the future of digital telecommunications rapidly onto the next leg of the journey.
audio than one awarded in 1938, expanded. The problem was each
the rather-plainly titled ‘Electric Long-distance phone calls amplification step also increased
Signalling System’. during that era were typically sent the background noise (reduced the
Improving audio quality, in through a series of repeater SNR) and reduced the quality.
particular reducing the stations. The voice audio was It was for this problem that
Reeves figured out a radical
solution that involved converting
the audio into a series of digital
binary pulses that could be easily
transmitted and boosted as
necessary. Then, once at its
destination, the digital signal
could be converted back to the
Right: The world’s original audio without the usual
first CD player, the loss of audio quality. The solution
Sony CDP101 was dubbed ‘pulse coded
(Image credit: modulation’ (PCM), for which,
Atreyu, CC BY 3.0). Reeves received a patent in 1938.

64
Unfortunately, his idea was ahead
of its time – certainly ahead of the
electronics and thermionic valves
or ‘tubes’ then available. In the
end, the U.S. Bell Laboratories
incorporated the first practical
PCM audio system in 1943 into the
encrypted speech system called
‘SIGSALY’ used for secret
communications between
Churchill and Roosevelt during
WWII.

Transparent discs a video tape recorder. The system degree in 1958. His success in Above: Japanese
It wasn’t until 1958, however, that converted audio into a 12-bit developing the digital audio audio brand Denon
the other half of the ‘compact disc’ binary data stream with a sample recording system in 1968 soon had recorded the first
equation – the physical disc media rate of 30kHz. Thanks to a him on the radar of one Masaru commercial digital
audio in 1972
itself – began taking shape. David theorem developed by another Ibuka, better known as co-founder (Image credit:
Gregg, an electrical engineer engineer, Harry Nyquist, that of Sony. After some gentle Pittigrilli, CC BY-SA
working for U.S. electronics 30kHz sample rate enabled the encouragement from Ibuka, 4.0).
company Western Electric, recorder to capture analog signals Nakajima quit his job at NHK in
developed a transparent optical up to 15kHz. The 12-bit binary 1971 and walked through the front
disc that used light transmission stream was potentially sufficient door of Sony as the new boss of the
through a disc to store electrical to deliver a dynamic range Audio Technology Centre.
signal data. He patented his (loudest sound to smallest) of 72dB Another piece of the Compact Disc
optical disc design in 1962 and (about 4,000:1), an improvement puzzle had just fallen into place.
formed his own company – Gauss on analog tape
Electrophysics – to further the at the time. "These professional Philips
technology. What’s interesting is That original improves the Above: CDs consist
that the disc was designed to store system created devices, often still the optical disc of four layers, with
data read from the
analog VHS-style video – the first by Nakajima size of a fridge in the Meanwhile, the
thin metal storage
commercial digital video disc was a mono late-1960s were
format was still 25 years away. The (one-channel) mid-1960s, were proving to be a
layer (B) (Image
credit: Pbroks13,
industry giant MCA (Music system only, recording TVs signals fertile period CC BY-SA 3.0).
Corporation of America) but by 1969, a for Dutch giant
eventually bought the patents to stereo system with a bandwidth of up Philips. In the
the disc technology in 1968 with a had been built. to 5MHz – all that was race to create a
view to further improving and Three years video disc
commercialising it. later, Japanese needed was for playback
electronics someone to come up system, Philips
Digital audio recording firm Denon engineer Klaas
Back in the audio world, produced the with the right idea." Compaan came
transmitting secure phone calls as first up with a new
digital audio was one thing, but it commercial digital audio reflective disc design that offered
was an entirely different matter to recording using the recording improvements to Gregg’s
record digital audio onto some system Nakajima had developed transmissive disc (including more
form of storage media. Reel-to-reel for NHK. compact design). In 1972, Philips
audio tape during the 1960s joined forces with MCA to
managed to reach 20kHz of Nakajima quits showcase a demonstration ‘video
bandwidth at reasonable tape Nakajima had joined NHK not disc’ system, but it would take
speeds, but it would need a long after completing his another six years before
bandwidth 100 times that to engineering degree in the 1940s, ‘LaserDisc’ would make its world
accurately capture a PCM signal but he continued his studies, introduction in 1978.
good enough to replay as music. receiving a Doctor of Engineering However, those six intervening
It’s a bigger story for another time,
but the solution already existed in
the form of the video tape
recorder. These professional
devices, often still the size of a
fridge in the mid-1960s, were
recording TVs signals with a
bandwidth of up to 5MHz – all that
was needed was for someone to
come up with the right idea. That
‘someone’ was Heitaro Nakajima,
an electrical engineer working for Left: Philips went to
the Japanese Broadcasting market with its first
Corporation known as ‘NHK’. In CD player, the
1967, he developed the first PCM CD100, in 1983
digital audio converter to attach to (Public Domain).

65
FEATURE

Left: PCM converts continuous analog

audio voltages into discrete (fixed-rate)
digital samples (Image credit:
Aquegg-commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0).

to its next bet, the Philips-MCA

optical disc system. Again, the idea
Above: LaserDisc of applying PCM digital audio, this
stored analog video
on optical discs time, to a LaserDisc player was
30cm in diameter floated and by the end of 1977, Sony
(Image credit: had constructed a 12-inch (30cm)
Kevin586, CC LaserDisc disc that played only
BY-SA 3.0). digital audio. While a normal 30cm-
diameter LaserDisc was good for as
little as 30-minutes of analog video,
this PCM audio disc could, in
theory, hold an impressive 13 hours
20 mins. Not surprisingly, such a
large disc capable of so much
audio-time raised a few questions.

Sony and Philips meet

They say ‘timing is everything’ and
years were crucial, for during that Betamax video cassette recorder it was in the northern-hemisphere
time, the VCR battle had begun (VCR) hit the market. Being a summer of 1978 when Sony received
and as a result, LaserDisc would consumer-grade device, it didn’t an invite from Philips engineer Lou
struggle to compete in the market. match the bandwidth of ‘Compact Cassette’ Ottens to come
It would ultimately take another professional video recorders, yet and view a new little optical disc the
couple of decades before the the Betamax VCR still had a company was working on. As it
market was ready for an optical recording bandwidth of 3.2MHz turned out, Sony wasn’t alone in the
disc format for video… – it was this fact that twigged team idea of an optical digital audio disc
member Agira Iga into wondering – the new Philips disc was 11.5cms
Betamax: the first digital could the far-more-compact and reportedly good for one hour’s
audio recorder Betamax be made to record digital recording. According to Sony, they
In the meantime, Sony recalls audio. They still needed to design saw the value of it immediately and
Nakajima’s first two years were a PCM adapter unit to convert the an agreement was forged between
somewhat subdued, with the original audio signal into a the two companies to
company deciding to get out of the digitised video-like signal the VCR commercialise the disc, with work
expensive LSI (large-scale could handle, but the following beginning in August 1979.
integration) chip business (albeit year, the PCM-1 PCM Processor While these two tech titans
temporarily) in 1973. Nevertheless, was born and combined with the clashed over the Compact Cassette a
that same year, Nakajima and his Betamax VCR, became the first decade before, they’d actually
team were reportedly just far commercial digital audio recorder. maintained a successful working
enough away from ‘head office’ However, the PCM-1 reportedly relationship for the better part of
that they could work more or less also copped flak from some users two decades to this point. What’s
without interference – and so with for producing weird ‘humming’ more, this new venture was
little fanfare, they got to work on a noises that would require essentially the ideal collaboration
digital audio recorder. The result additional research for Sony to – Sony’s expertise in digital audio
was dubbed the X-12DTC - it eventually overcome. was now second-to-none and
worked, but required two-inch Philips’ reflective optical disc was
(5cm) wide tape and reportedly What about PCM and LaserDisc? exactly the tech needed.
was the size of a fridge. Sony It was now 1976, the year the VCR
showed off the machine at the 1974 format war kicked off, as JVC The ‘Compact Disc’
Japan Audio Fair, but that’s as far launched its ‘VHS’ system to take As with most relationships, there
as it went. on Sony’s Betamax. However, even were squabbles along the way
However in 1975, the Sony at this stage, Sony had signed up (including deciding on the audio bit
Right: In 1995,
Sony dropped the
‘Discman’ name in
favour of its ‘CD
Walkman’ brand
(Image credit:
Lcarsdata, CC
BY-SA 3.0).
Far Right: Initial
Sony portable CD
players were
branded ‘Discman’
and evolved during
the 1990s (Image
credit: MiNe,
CC BY 2.0).

66
 Above: The first
portable CD player
arrived just five
years after the first
cassette Walkman
(Image credit:
Binarysequence,
CC BY-SA 4.0).
Left: The WWII
‘SIGSALY’
encrypted
telephony system
was the first use of
digital PCM audio
(Public Domain).

depth and the size of the disc recognisable – to the extent that The phenomenon continues
itself). However, a more pressing Sony’s Walkman, while still Today, the vast majority of digital
issue was development of the laser hugely popular, had a major new audio we listen to features some
pickup unit and the LSI chips to technology competitor to deal form of lossy compression,
handle new complex concepts with. Not surprisingly, the desire whether it’s MP3, AAC or
such as data error-correction. to do with the Compact Disc what whatever. However, that
Nevertheless, prototypes of the they had achieved with the compressed audio, especially if its
new ‘Compact Disc’ system began Compact Cassette became a music from your favourite band,
appearing in 1981. The two mandate for Sony to shrink the will invariably have started its
partners had finally settled on a CDP-101 into something akin to digital life as a PCM stream of data
120mm-diameter optical disc the Walkman. recorded onto a storage format.
delivered stereo (two-channel) However, PCM still
digital audio with a sample rate of while remains the
44.1kHz at 16-bit depth and a shrinking an "It was now 1976, the pre-eminent
maximum run-time of 74mins analog cassette year the VCR format form of digital
42seconds. tape system audio and
The problem now was was one thing, war kicked off, as JVC continues to be
convincing the record labels it was shrinking launched its ‘VHS’ used to store
a good idea. Not surprisingly, a digital archive-quality
good number were against it to technology system to take on recordings. It’s
begin with, since LP records had that included Sony’s Betamax." not known
improved significantly over the PCM digital-to- whether Alec
previous decade (not to mention audio Reeves knew of
the cost spinning up brand-new decoding, error correction and did the work Denon or even NHK had
CD production would require). so using only battery power was achieved in PCM recording before
In the end, however, they came something else. The key would be he passed in 1971, but you’d think
on-board and on 1 October 1982, LSI chip design. According to he’d have been just a little bit
with much fanfare, Sony launched Sony, while LSI had made the chuffed.
the world’s first CD player, the CDP-101 a reality, the rapid scale of In the next installment of this
CDP-101, alongside a CD copy of development at the time meant series in APC we’re heading into
Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, one of 50 that by September 1983, it could the 1990s as digital audio takes
CDs launched on the day, all build the CDP-101 into a box over and portable devices appear
manufactured by Philips. one-tenth of its original size. In in all forms, but as a new century
November 1984 and with the rest dawned, few would be prepared
CDs go portable of the technology miniaturisation for a once-struggling computer
The difference in audio quality complete, Sony launched the D-50, company fast finding its feet again
between the Compact Cassette the world’s first portable CD player to create the next revolution in
and Compact Disc was instantly and dubbed it the ‘Discman’. portable audio.

67
 There are always new tricks to master to help you keep up
with the latest technology. Robert Irvine suggests 16 ways to
expand your digital skills and the best free tools to use.

In December, BT published research items in BT’s list, but technology is

that highlighted the importance of constantly evolving and there are
learning new digital skills among the always new skills to learn if you want
WHAT YOU CAN DO older generation. Its report (see to keep up with the latest changes. In
• Make your video calls www.snipca.com/44641) found that this feature, we recommend 16 secret
better quality 39 percent of older adults feel they PC tricks you should master to
• Secure and schedule aren’t ‘tech savvy’, but are still keen expand your digital expertise.
email messages to master new technology. It listed We reveal how to perform activities
• Manage files on your 40 digital skills that the over-60s you’re already familiar with in a
PC like an expert have learnt in the past 10 years, faster, smarter and safer manner,
• Improve your Wi-Fi and which ranged from basic everyday and suggest the best free software for
Bluetooth capabilities activities such as online shopping, these tasks. To keep things fresh and
• Capture audio and video taking photos on a mobile phone and forward-looking, these all involve
from any source streaming TV shows to more using new programs or tools that
• Take control of your advanced tech tasks including have been introduced in the last 12
Windows software connecting to Wi-Fi, setting up a months. Once you’ve mastered these
VPN and using QR codes. skills, you can pass on that
Most APC readers should knowledge to your less tech-savvy
comfortably be able to tick off all 40 friends and family members.
IMPROVE YOUR VIDEO CALLS

1 Enhance the quality of

your video calls
During the Covid lockdowns, millions
of us discovered the benefits of
making video calls on our PCs.
Software such as Zoom, Skype and
Google Meet lets you have free face-to-
face chats with friends and family
anywhere in the world, so you can
stay in touch when you can’t meet in
person, and make group calls to
several people at the same time.
However, a common problem with
desktop video calls is poor sound
quality. Provided you and the person
you’re speaking to have decent
webcams and are sitting in adequately
lit rooms, you can usually see each
other without any problems, but you
might not be able to hear each other
properly. Muffled audio, background
noise and echoing voices can all affect
the clarity – and your enjoyment – of
the conversation, almost as much as Enhance the quality of video calls by using Krisp to remove background noise.
accidentally muting your
microphone.
To ensure all your future video calls
are suitably clear and audible, install
2 Display live captions
in video calls
Even when the sound in your video calls
com/44604 and selecting ‘In Meeting
(Advanced)’. Switch on ‘Automated
captions’ ( 1 in our screenshot below) and
Krisp (krisp.ai) on your computer. is relatively clear, you may not catch optionally ‘Full transcript’ (which allows
This program uses AI to remove every word people say and vice versa, participants to view the full transcript in
background noise and echo from especially if one of you suffers from a side panel) and Save Captions (which
video calls, and enhance the quality of hearing difficulties. This is why it’s lets people save captions and transcripts).
your voice. Specify which video-chat useful to know how to enable live In the Zoom video-call window, click the
tool you use, from options including captions for your video conversations. Live Transcript button (or the More
Zoom, Skype and Microsoft Teams, As with subtitles on TV programmes, button if you can’t see this) and choose
and Krisp will provide instructions this feature transcribes speech in almost Enable Auto-Transcription 2 . Chat
for setting it up with that service. real time, so you can read what other participants can also request that the
In Zoom, for example, click the chat participants are saying even when feature be turned on.
Settings cog in the top-right corner, you can’t hear them. Skype makes displaying live
choose Audio and select Krisp Zoom used to reserve automatically captions much easier. During a video call,
Speaker and Krisp Microphone from generated captions – or Live select the Caption button to turn on the
the Speaker and Microphone Transcription as it calls the feature – for feature, then click it again to customise
dropdown menus (see screenshot its paid-for business plans, but now the caption settings. You can choose to
above right) - Zoom offers its own they’re available to free users, too. When show captions for all the people you’re
‘Suppress background noise’ option, you’re hosting a video meeting, you can currently talking to, or for other
but Krisp works better. Next, in the activate the option by visiting your Zoom participants but not yourself, and control
Krisp software, ensure your Settings page at www.snipca. where they appear in the call window.
computer’s default microphone and
speaker are selected, and that Remove
Noise is switched on for both. You can
test the noise reduction by clicking
Test Noise Cancellation and recording
yourself speaking.
When you start or join a video call,
you’ll see a Krisp widget above the 1
chat window, which shows that noise
reduction is active – you can switch it
off if necessary and launch Krisp
manually if the widget doesn’t appear.
Krisp is free for personal use and
works for 60 minutes of video calls
per day. If you need unlimited use,
you can upgrade to a Pro subscription
for US$8 per month. You need to
register with Krisp before you can 2 Activate automatic
download its software to your PC, but captions so nobody
no payment card details are required. misses a word of your
video calls.
 TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR EMAIL

3 Disguise your email address

to stop spam
Sending an email is one of the first
4 Encrypt your private emails
One of the best features in
Mozilla Thunderbird (www.
digital skills most of us learn, but thunderbird.net/en-US) is the
protecting your email address from ability to secure your emails using
junk messages requires expert end-to-end encryption, so that only
know-how. In the past, the easiest you and the recipient can read them.
option was to use a disposable email The latest version of the email
service, but this made it difficult to program (102) makes this even easier
retrieve messages containing to do.
important information and to reply to To enable the option, click the
emails. three-line menu button in the
A much smarter way to avoid spam, top-right corner of the main
scams and data leaks due to security Thunderbird window and choose
breaches is to use DuckDuckGo’s Account Settings, then select You can schedule emails for Gmail to send later
Email Protection service. Launched End-to-End Encryption. You now at a more appropriate time.
last August, this gives you an need to create an encryption key for
alternative ‘@duck.com’ email your emails using the secure containing the encryption key, so
address that you can share with OpenPGP standard. Click ‘Add Key’ they can reply with their key and
websites. The service then forwards (see screenshot below), select ‘Create send you encrypted messages. It’s
messages to your usual inbox without a new OpenPGP key’ and click simpler than it sounds and is an
revealing your real address. Unlike Continue. Choose your email address important skill to master if you
rival services, it lets you create an in the Identity menu, specify how value your privacy.
unlimited number of fake addresses many years your key should work for
for free, so if one of them starts
forwarding junk to your inbox, you
can simply switch to a new one. It also
– or select ‘Key does not expire’ – and
click ‘Generate key’. Click ‘Confirm’
and Thunderbird will generate your
5 Schedule emails to send later
Unlike in France, where
employees can legally ignore
lets you reply to messages sent to your OpenPGP key, which consists of a work-related emails outside office
Duck (@duck.com) address. public and a personal part and will hours, we in Australia send and
To use DuckDuckGo Email appear in the OpenPGP Key Manager. receive messages throughout the day
Protection on your PC, install the To send someone an encrypted and night. But it’s useful to know
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials message, you first need them to how to schedule emails to be sent at
extension for Chromium browsers email you their public encryption times when they have the best
(www.snipca.com/44608) and key. Open the email containing this chance of being read and responded
Firefox (www.snipca.com/44607) key and double-click the attachment to. Hammering out a message at 3am
– note that this changes your default that ends in ‘.asc’. Click ‘Import’ to may help you get something off your
search engine to DuckDuckGo. Visit save the key in Thunderbird. Once chest, but can also appear strange to
the DuckDuckGo Email website this is done, click the Write button or the recipient several hours later.
(duckduckgo.com/email), click Get press Ctrl-N to compose a new To delay sending an email in
Started and follow the instructions to message to that person. Click the Gmail, click the down arrow next to
set up your first Duck address. You Encrypt button if it isn’t already the Send button and select ‘Schedule
can create subsequent addresses selected, then type and send your send’. Either choose one of the three
either by clicking the extension’s email. Your own public encryption suggested times or click ‘Select date
toolbar button and choosing Generate key will be automatically attached to and time’ (see screenshot above) to
Private Duck Address or clicking that the email, so the recipient – and specify precisely when to send the
option on your account page (see nobody else – can decrypt it and read email, then click ‘Schedule send’.
screenshot below). its contents. In the Outlook desktop program,
You can share your public key with click the Options tab then the Delay
people you haven’t securely Delivery button. Tick the ‘Do not
messaged before by clicking the deliver before’ box and select a date
arrow next to Attach and selecting and time to send the email. On the
My Open PGP Public Key. They will Outlook website, click the arrow
then receive an email attachment next to the Send button, choose
‘Schedule send’ and click
‘Customised time’ to specify the
details.
Thunderbird still doesn’t offer an
email-scheduling option, but you
can get the feature by installing an
add-on. Click the three-line menu
button, select ‘Add-ons and Themes’
and search for send later. Click ‘Add
to Thunderbird’ next to the
matching add-on and click Add.
When you compose a message, click
the new Send Later button on the
Disguise your email address by creating a Duck Create an OpenPGP key in Thunderbird to secure toolbar to schedule a date and time.
address to share with websites. your emails using encryption.

70
MANAGE YOUR FILES LIKE AN EXPERT

6 Unlock and delete

locked files
It’s always frustrating when you try to
Options to customise dupeGuru’s
duplicate detection – then click
Scan.
delete, move or rename a file or folder, Results appear in a new tab, with
only to be told that ‘access is denied’. the original versions of files
The error message may say that the highlighted in blue. Tick the boxes
item is in use by another program, or next to all the duplicates you want
you don’t have permission to perform to remove – or press Ctrl-A to select
the action, but Windows won’t tell you them all – then press Ctrl-D to
which program or service is locking delete them. Click ‘Details’ (see
the file. screenshot left) to preview images
Rather than ignore the stubborn before you bin them, and Dupes
item, you can use a new option in Only to show only copies of files,
Microsoft PowerToys (github.com/ Keep your PC free of duplicate files by running not the originals.
microsoft/PowerToys) to determine regular scans with dupeGuru.
which background process on your
PC is restricting your access, and free
the file or folder from its clutches. 7 Find and delete
duplicate files
8 Recover accidentally
deleted files
When you accidentally delete an
The feature is called File Locksmith One of the most common requests important file from your PC, and it’s
and was introduced in version 0.64 of we get from readers is to recommend not in the recycle bin, it’s worth
the free system utility suite, which a way to delete duplicate files – trying a file-recovery program to
was released in November. particularly photos. Now that many rescue the lost item. But many ‘free’
To use it, first ensure that of us transfer files back and forth tools force you to upgrade to their
PowerToys is running in between numerous sources – paid-for versions to restore data –
Administrator mode, then click the including our phones, online storage essentially charging you to get back
File Locksmith option and switch on and USB sticks – it’s easy to your own content. To avoid this
Enable File Locksmith. Right-click accumulate several copies of the frustration and cost, download
the locked file or folder, choose same item, but more difficult to WinfrGUI (www.winfr.org) to
‘What’s using this file?’ and File locate and remove them all. safeguard you against future loss.
Locksmith will reveal the process To avoid wasting valuable Based on Microsoft’s command-
responsible. Click ‘End task’ next to it hard-drive space on unwanted line tool Windows File Recovery,
(see screenshot below) to close the duplicates, run regular scans with this app lets you recover unlimited
program or service, and unlock the dupeGuru (dupeguru. photos, videos, documents and
item so you can delete, move or voltaicideas.net). This excellent other files for free. Simply select
rename it. free tool was updated last year to the drive or partition that you want
If File Locksmith can’t help, improve its accuracy (previously it to scan for deleted files – this can be
download and run the free tool was erroneously marking some files a hard drive, SSD, memory card or
ThisIsMyFile (www.snipca. as duplicates) and make it easier USB stick – then choose a folder to
com/44584), which unlocks and than ever to find and delete ‘dupes’. restore the files to.
deletes locked files “with no ifs or Click the plus sign in the bottom- Decide whether to perform a
buts”. Either drag the undeletable file left corner of the program window Quick Scan or a more thorough
into the program’s Files/Folder box or to select the drive or folder(s) you Deep Scan, then click Start
click the Browse button to find and want to scan, then choose an Recovery (see screenshot below).
select it. Click ‘Unlock’ to free the file Application Mode – Standard WinfrGUI will then find, recover
from the unknown process, then click checks for copies of all file types, and list deleted files. To save time
Delete. For particularly stubborn while the Music and Picture modes in future, click Advanced Settings
items, select ‘Reboot & Delete’ to shut focus on audio and image files. before scanning to specify which
down your system and remove the file Select ‘File name’ or Contents in the file types to look for and which
on start-up. Scan Type menu – or click More folders to search.

Use File Locksmith to find out which process is locking your files (Word, in this Download WinfrGUI to easily recover important files you’ve accidentally
case) and free them. deleted from any of your drives.

71
 IMPROVE YOUR CONNECTIVITY

9 Diagnose problems
with your Wi-Fi
It’s easy to take Wi-Fi for granted
until it stops working – and then you
need to figure out what’s gone wrong.
Perhaps your PC has disconnected 1
from the wireless access point, your
internet signal has mysteriously
dropped or a rogue device has
connected to your network and is
slowing you down. We’ve previously 2
recommended Wireless Network
Watcher from NirSoft (www.snipca. Switch on ‘Nearby sharing’ in Windows to transfer Keep your Wi-Fi password secret by using an app
com/42076) as a way to detect the large files between devices. that turns it into a QR code that you share.
latter problem and the prolific
software developer now offers between your PC and phone or it, choosing ‘Bluetooth device’ in the
another useful free Wi-Fi tool. another computer. ‘Send to’ menu and selecting the
Released last May, To do this, you first need to ‘pair’ device. On your Android phone or
WifiDiagnosticsView (www.snipca. the devices – open the Settings app in tablet, tap Share in an app and press
com/44593) monitors your Wi-Fi Windows 10 or 11, choose Devices, Nearby Share to scan for and
adapter for changes and tells you then ‘Bluetooth & other devices’ and connect to Bluetooth devices.
exactly when they occurred. These ensure Bluetooth is switched on. Note that ‘Nearby sharing’ only
include instances when it scans for Click ‘Add Bluetooth or other device’ works if your PC’s Bluetooth adapter
available networks, connects to and (‘Add device’ in Windows 11), choose uses at least version 4 of Bluetooth.
disconnects from an access point, is Bluetooth and select the device to You can check which version you
subject to a change in signal quality connect to. have by downloading a new program
and other significant events. When a Check that the six-digit PIN called Bluetooth Version Finder
failure is detected, the tool provides matches on both devices then click (www.snipca.com/43004), which
an error code and description, so you Connect to pair them. saves you having to delve into the
can look it up online and diagnose To share small files, simply click Windows Device Manager. Click
your Wi-Fi problem. It also tells you the Bluetooth icon in your system ‘More info’ then ‘Run anyway’ if you
the SSID of your network, the make of tray (click the small up arrow if you see a security warning.
your adapter, whether security is don’t see this), choose ‘Send a File’
enabled and other useful
information.
To keep WifiDiagnosticsView
and click the device you want to
transfer the file to. Browse to the file
and click Open then Next to share it
11 Share Wi-Fi passwords
using QR codes
Android and iOS devices make it easy
running in the background, click the – tap or click Accept on the other to connect to Wi-Fi networks by
Options menu and select Put Icon On device to complete the transfer. scanning QR codes with their
Tray (see screenshot below). You can A better option, which allows for cameras, and also let you generate a
then click its system-tray icon to faster and larger file transfers code for your own Wi-Fi network that
launch the program whenever you between Windows and Android you can share with guests without
need to check your Wi-Fi. devices (iOS devices use AirDrop disclosing your password. Although
instead), is to activate ‘Nearby Windows doesn’t offer these useful

10 Send large files quickly using

Bluetooth
Many of us now use Bluetooth devices
sharing’ on your PC. Open Settings
and click System, then ‘Shared
experiences’ (Windows 10 only) and
options, you can add both to your PC
by installing the free app WiFi QR
Code Scanner from the Microsoft
such as earbuds, hearing aids and switch on ‘Nearby sharing’ (see Store (www.snipca.com/44623).
fitness trackers, but the technology is screenshot above). You can now share This allows you to scan a QR code and
also a great way to quickly share files a file from Windows by right-clicking instantly connect to a Wi-Fi network
by holding the code – whether it’s on
a phone screen or a physical card – in
front of your laptop’s camera, with no
need to request or type a lengthy
password.
To generate a QR code for your
own Wi-Fi network, which you can
print and stick on the fridge or email
to other people, click the Create
Code tab at the top of the app
window. Enter your network’s
name and password, and click
Generate QR Code ( 1 in our
screenshot above). Test that the new
code works by scanning it with your
phone’s camera. Click ‘Save QR Code
File’ 2 to save the code as an image
file that you can print and share as
WifiDiagnosticsView monitors your Wi-Fi for changes to help you diagnose problems. required.

72
 ERASE ALL YOUR
PRIVATE DATA

CAPTURE MEDIA CONTENT FROM ANY SOURCE

the Sound button to choose an audio Content button to detect and
source on your PC, such as your download every file on the specified
microphone (see screenshot below page.
left), then click the Rec button to Additionally, there’s a Down Right
start recording – click it again or Now extension for Chromium
press F9 to stop. browsers (www.snipca.com/44629)
By default, PicPick saves videos in and Firefox (www.snipca.
MP4 format, but you can reduce the com/44630), which lets you
file size (and quality) by recording download files in DownZemAll by
them as GIFs instead, and adjust the clicking its toolbar button then
video quality in the program’s choosing Download or by right-
Recording settings. To record videos clicking a download link then
of longer than two minutes, you selecting ‘Save link’.
PicPick lets you record two-minute videos of your need to pay US$24 a year for the Note that DownZemAll may
screen complete with audio. premium version of PicPick. trigger a Microsoft Defender
SmartScreen warning, but it’s safe to

12 Record your screen

including audio
Knowing how to record videos of
13 Download streaming
audio and video
Most websites now prefer us to
use so just click ‘More info’ then ‘Run
anyway’.

what’s happening on your screen is a

very useful skill to master. Not only
does it let you show friends and
stream their content in our browsers
rather than download it, which is
annoying if you want to save a video
14 Copy text from
photos and videos
Optical character recognition (OCR)
family how to carry out specific or music track to play later. One way is traditionally used to convert
tasks, but it also means you can around this is to install scanned documents into editable
demonstrate problems you’ve been DownZemAll (www.snipca. text, but it can also now extract text
experiencing yourself to get the com/44635), a fast and free from images you capture, receive via
technical support you need. Last download manager that makes email and view in your browser. Last
year, the brilliant free (for personal downloading streaming content a October, Microsoft added an OCR
use) screen-capture tool PicPick doddle. tool to its PowerToys suite (github.
added a Screen Recorder feature that Simply click the Download Video/ com/microsoft/PowerToys), which
lets you make videos of your desktop Audio Stream button on the can copy text from anywhere on your
with accompanying audio, so you program’s toolbar and copy and screen – including within images
can narrate what you’re doing and paste the web address of the stream and videos – so you can paste it
create your own how-to guides of up – such as a YouTube or SoundCloud elsewhere.
to two minutes in length. URL – into the Download box, then To activate this new feature, open
To use the new feature, download, click Continue. Alternatively, wait the PowerToys Settings screen, click
install and run PicPick (picpick. for DownZemAll to detect the media Text Extractor and switch on Enable
app/en) then click Screen Recorder content automatically. Select the Text Extractor (see screenshot
on the program’s ‘Pick a task’ screen format and resolution you want to below). Press Windows key-Shift-T
or right-click its taskbar icon and save the file in, then click Start (see and your screen will turn grey. Drag
choose the option there. PicPick will screenshot below) to download it to your cursor over the image or paused
then open a Recording Area window your PC. video you want to extract text from,
with a default size of 640x360 pixels You can also download other types then release your mouse button to
– you can move and resize this to of files, including images, PDFs, save the selected area to your
cover the area you want to capture. documents and ZIP archives by clipboard. Open the program you
Alternatively, click the Fullscreen clicking the blue plus sign on the want to use the copied text in, such
Mode button on the floating toolbar toolbar and pasting the file’s URL. as Microsoft Word or an email client,
to record your whole screen. Click Click the Download Web Page and either press Ctrl-V or right-click
and choose Paste to insert it into a
document or message. Text Extractor
Use DownZemAll to couldn’t be easier to use and its OCR
download streaming is pretty accurate, but it’s worth
content that you double-checking the result.
can play whenever
you want.

The new Text Extractor tool in PowerToys copies text

from images and videos.

73
 TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SOFTWARE

15 Install software more easily

– without junk
Knowing how to install software
marticliment/WingetUI).
This new free tool lets you search
Winget’s database, and that of
programs in a couple of clicks.
WingetUI triggers a Microsoft
SmartScreen warning, but it’s safe
is a rudimentary PC skill that another package manager called to use so click ‘More info’ then ‘Run
usually involves little more than Scoop, via a simple interface that anyway’.
double-clicking an EXE file and doesn’t require you to learn
following the on-screen
instructions. However, if you
want to install multiple programs
commands. Click WingetUI’s
Discover Packages tab ( 1 in our
screenshot below) to browse more
16 Stop programs
slowing your PC booting
An increasing number of programs
without having to visit individual than 4,000 packages (junk-free and apps now set themselves to
download sites and decline downloads) of popular free start automatically when Windows
unwanted junk during programs. Double-click or right- launches. You may not even realise
installation, the expert solution click an entry and choose Install 2 these tools are running, but they
is to use a ‘package manager’. The to download and install the slow your PC by consuming
built-in Windows Package software. valuable memory and processing
Manager – called Winget for short The Software Updates tab 3 tells power that would be better
– relies on you typing complex you which installed tools have allocated to more important tasks.
commands into Command newer versions available and lets Although you can use the Startup
Prompt, but you can make things you update them all in one go, while tab in the Windows Task Manager
considerably easier by using the Installed Packages to disable unnecessary startup
WingetUI (github.com/ tab 4 lets you remove unwanted items, it’s equally useful to delay
programs so they don’t all run at
once and compete for system
resources.
The excellent free tool HiBit
1 3 4 Startup Manager (www.snipca.
com/44640) gives you full control
over your startup items, allowing
you to significantly boost the
performance of your PC. It shows
you the programs that have the
highest impact on your system’s
startup speed, and lets you disable,
delete or delay them by right-
clicking and choosing the most
suitable option (see screenshot
below).
Should you choose to delay
rather than disable a ‘high impact’
but essential startup item, you can
2 specify how long to wait after
Windows starts before it runs.
Alternatively, choose Automatic
Delay to set the program to run
when a certain percentage of your
processor or hard drive is idle.
Delayed items are listed at the
bottom of HiBit Startup Manager’s
Install and update thousands of free programs in one place using WingetUI. main window, where you can
right-click them to edit or remove
the delay.
CONTROL WHICH UPDATES WINDOWS INSTALLS
All the tasks in this feature rely on essential security updates.
Windows running smoothly, but Download and run the program, and
Microsoft’s ‘Feature updates’ can you’ll see a message in red saying ‘OS
interfere with this, and cause more upgrades are not under your control on
problems than they fix. Although you this system’. Click the Take Control
can delay or disable these updates by button and this will change to a green
tweaking the registry or the Group message confirming that ‘You are in
Policy Editor (in Windows 10 or 11 Pro), control of OS upgrades’, and no system
it’s much easier to use a new free tool updates will be installed until you click
called InControl (www.grc.com/ Release Control. You can tell InControl
incontrol.htm). This keeps your version which version of Windows you want to
of Windows at the current release and upgrade to – when it becomes available
blocks Feature updates until you’re – by changing the numbers in the
ready to install them, while still allowing bottom-left corner.
HiBit Startup Manager lets you delay startup items that
are slowing your PC.

74
 It’s vital to remove personal data from your PC to
stop other people seeing it. Robert Irvine explains
how to remove every trace of your activities using two
powerful free tools.

Anyone who wants to know what you’ve they can’t be recovered, you need a
WHAT YOU CAN DO been doing on your computer – both dedicated privacy cleaner. Thankfully
• Wipe details of recently opened online and offline – can find out in just a there are two excellent free tools
files and programs matter of seconds. Your PC stores details available.
• Overwrite deleted data to make it of all your Windows and web activities, Privacy Eraser (www.cybertronsoft.
impossible for others to recover including the files you open, the sites com/products/privacy-eraser) and
• Remove leftover traces from the you visit and the software you use, and PrivaZer (privazer.com) will both purge
Windows registry makes this information easy for you to your PC of all private data and leftover
• Delete unwanted tracking access. But this also makes it easy for traces, including temporary files,
cookies while retaining others to access, which significantly tracking cookies and usage logs.
essential ones compromises your privacy, even if you In this feature, we reveal the options
• Erase your browsing history from have nothing to hide. you must use in both programs to
all your browsers Manually deleting personal data from perform the most thorough clean-up
• Delete stored passwords and info all the programs you use can be possible and hide all details of your
you type into online forms time-consuming and confusing, and activities from prying eyes. We explain
• Shred files and folders containing traces of your activities are inevitably which boxes you must tick, where to
sensitive data left behind, allowing savvy snoopers to find them and how to ensure you don’t
see what you’ve been up to. To erase more – or less – data than you
completely erase all these elements so intend.

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 ERASE WHAT YOU DO IN WINDOWS
Recently opened Hidden data stored in Windows
files and programs One of Privacy Eraser’s greatest
The logical place to start when strengths is that it wipes personal
removing details of your Windows data from Windows you may have
activities is the Start menu, which forgotten about but that can still be
shows anyone who uses your PC the accessed by other people. For example,
programs you’ve recently added and you may have copied sensitive
those you use most often. Windows information to the Clipboard that
11’s Start menu also lists anyone can then paste elsewhere by
Recommended items including pressing Ctrl-V. If they’re particularly
recently opened files. Delete recently used histories to stop people seeing nosey, they can press Windows key-V
Further information about what which files you’ve opened. to open your Clipboard history and see
you’ve been doing is revealed by the the last 25 items you’ve copied. To stop
Jump Lists that open when you access private files and folders; and this happening, select Clipboard in
right-click the taskbar or Start-menu ‘Open & Save Dialog History’ – to the Windows System section of the
icons for programs and File Explorer. delete the file history from the Open Windows tab to erase your Clipboard
These list files, folders and links you and Save dialogue boxes. history.
opened recently or use frequently, so PrivaZer also lets you delete details It’s equally easy to forget that files
you can access them again quickly, but of recently opened files and programs. and folders you delete are usually sent
they also compromise your privacy by Click ‘Scan specific traces’ on the to the recycle bin rather than removed
letting other people access those home screen, choose ‘Software use’ from your PC. Ticking the Recycle Bin
items, too. and select ‘Start JumpLists, Quick option in Privacy Eraser empties the
In Privacy Eraser, you can wipe this Access’. Tick the box next to ‘Start bins on all the drives connected to
data in the Windows Explorer section menu’ to wipe usage data from the your computer, so their contents can’t
of the Windows tab (see screenshot menu and the taskbar, then choose the be retrieved.
above right). Select the options Start Jump Lists you want to delete – such as PrivaZer goes even further by
Menu Recent Items and Taskbar Jump for Windows Explorer (File Explorer), thoroughly overwriting files deleted
Lists before you run a clean-up with specific programs or all Jump Lists on from the recycle bin to guarantee
the program. It’s also worth ticking your computer. Select ‘Windows ‘permanent deletion without any
the boxes for the following: Windows history’ to remove details of your possibility of recovery’. Click ‘Delete
Search History – to stop anyone seeing recent searches, Run history and the without a trace’ on its home screen,
which items you’ve searched your PC files and directories (folders) you’ve select ‘Empty recycle bin (without a
for; Start Menu Run History – if you’ve used. trace)’ then select ‘See advanced
used the Run tool in Windows to options’. Click the dropdown menu to
specify how many times to overwrite
recycle bin data – PrivaZer suggests
three ‘passes’ are enough to make
HOW TO USE PRIVACY ERASER AND PRIVAZER recovery impossible (see screenshot
below) – then click Start.
Privacy Eraser and PrivaZer have very two programs, sensibly organising its
different interfaces, but work in a options into tabs such as Windows, You can set the program to always
similar way. You can perform an initial Browsers and Applications. PrivaZer empty your recycle bin after a
scan from both home screens using offers more deep-cleaning features, but clean-up by choosing Options on the
their default settings – just click the big it’s not always obvious where to find home screen and clicking Next until
red Scan button in the former (see them because they’re located in you reach the ‘Yes, at each cleanup of
screenshot 1 ) and ‘Scan in-depth in 1 sections such as ‘Scan specific traces’. my PC with PrivaZer’ option under
click’ in the latter 2 . Once the scan is However, it does let you click Options ‘Empty recycle bin’.
complete, click either Quick Clean or to specify whether you’re a Basic or
Clean to remove all privacy traces, junk Advanced user and tailor its settings to
files and other unnecessary elements in your needs.
Traces of data in free drive space
one fell swoop. Both tools are free to use, though When you delete a file from your PC,
The drawbacks to this method are Privacy Eraser restricts a few options to all that’s actually removed is the
that full scans and clean-ups take a its paid-for version, which costs reference to that item in the Windows
long time and may remove more or less US$19.95 a year. Other than targeting
data than you intended. This makes it the same areas of your PC, the two
useful to know which boxes to tick/ programs don’t clash so you can either
untick among the privacy options switch between them as required or
offered by both tools. choose the one that works best for you.
Privacy Eraser is the friendlier of the

1 2

PrivaZer empties your recycle bin and overwrites files

so they can’t be recovered.

76 76
 ERASE ALL YOUR
PRIVATE DATA

1
master file table (MFT). The file itself
remains on your hard drive until it’s
overwritten with new data, though
the space it occupies is now marked as
‘free’ by Windows. This is useful if you
need to ‘undelete’ the file using a
specialist recovery tool such as
Recuva or WinfrGUI, but it also means
that your hard drive contains lots of
invisibledata that potentially
compromises your privacy.
PrivaZer helpfully provides a
dedicated option for removing junk
traces from ‘free’ disk space. On its
home screen choose ‘Scan specific
traces’, select ‘Residual traces of old
files’ under ‘Which traces’, then select
‘Residual traces of old files’ on the
following screen. Tick the boxes for
Pre-analysis and ‘Traces in free space’ 2
( 1 in our screenshot above right), then
click the Scan button. 3
PrivaZer will identify sectors of
your hard drive that contain traces of
old files and need to be ‘reset to zero’. Use PrivaZer to thoroughly delete all traces of data from ‘free’ space on your PC.
Click ‘See cleanup options’ 2 to
specify how many times to overwrite Windows System section and tick
the free space – again, three ‘passes’ is the boxes for Invalid Start Menu
enough – then click the ‘Free space’ Shortcuts and Invalid Desktop
tab and choose ‘Smart cleanup’ – this Shortcuts before running a scan (see
is much faster than ‘Normal cleanup’ screenshot right).
because it only cleans necessary In PrivaZer, select Options on the
sectors. Go back to the previous screen home screen, click Next twice and
and click Clean 3 to completely erase choose either ‘Yes, remove invalid
all the invisible data from your PC. shortcuts’ or ‘Yes, invalid shortcuts +
list of most used’ to also delete
Broken shortcuts to deleted files details of frequently used programs.
Shortcuts that no longer work because
the files, folders or programs they Leftover traces in the registry
point to have been deleted are usually Every time you uninstall a program
more of an annoyance than a privacy or change something in Windows,
concern. But the shortcuts’ file names redundant settings get left behind in Delete invalid shortcuts to avoid revealing details
may be enough for nosey parkers to the registry. Over time, these of removed files.
deduce the contents of the original leftovers build up and slow your PC,
items and wonder why they were and removing them can both speed letting you select items that it’s safe
removed, so it’s wise not to leave them it up and protect your privacy from to remove. Options include Obsolete
behind. anyone hunting for leftover traces. Software, which wipes registry
Privacy Eraser makes detecting and Deleting registry files yourself can entries for programs you’ve
deleting broken shortcuts very be risky, but Privacy Eraser’s uninstalled; and Shared DLLs,
straightforward – simply go to the Windows tab makes the job easier by which deletes old entries for
dynamic link libraries that no
longer exist.
Privacy Eraser automatically
backs up your registry before
making any changes,
and lets you restore it by clicking
the three-dot icon next to the
Registry heading, then the Restore
tab. Select a registry backup and
click Restore (see screenshot left).
To clean the registry in PrivaZer,
click ‘Scan specific traces’, choose In
Registry and select Registry on the
left. Click ‘Save registry’ in the
bottom-right corner to create a
backup before scanning for and
cleaning leftover traces – you can
safely leave the pre-ticked options
as they are.
Privacy Eraser backs up your registry automatically before making any changes.

77
 ERASE WHAT YOU DO ON THE WEB
Tracking cookies
from your browsers
All the main web browsers now offer
protection against website cookies 1
by allowing you to either block them
all (which can stop some sites
working properly) or block only the
tracking variety from third-party
sources. But removing cookies that 3 2 Left: Privacy Eraser lets
have already been planted on your you decide which
PC, or have slipped through your browser cookies you
browser’s net, is less easy to do, want to keep and which
to delete.
particularly if you want to keep Below: Carry out
‘good’ cookies that sign you into precise cleaning of your
websites but delete ‘bad’ ones that browsing data by
follow you around the internet. If selecting specific
you use several browsers, this task options in PrivaZer.
becomes even more difficult.
Fortunately, help is at hand from (super cookies let websites identify
Privacy Eraser, which simplifies the your browser and are harder to
process of wiping unwanted cookies remove than standard ones), then
while keeping useful ones. Click the click ‘See cookies’.
Browsers tab to see options for all the In the Cookies box that opens,
browsers installed on your computer choose Manual to select which 1
– or at least the most popular ones, cookies to keep and remove – those in
including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, the ‘To delete’ list on the right (see
Brave, Opera and Vivaldi. screenshot below left) are most likely 2
The Cookies box for each of these to be tracking cookies. Click the
should already be ticked, and when ‘Show all’ dropdown menu to filter
you click the three-dot button next to cookies by type and browser, or select
it ( 1 in our screenshot above right), Smart to save cookies related to
the Cookie Manager will show you a specific companies. Once you’ve
list of all the cookies installed in that made your selection, go back to the
browser 2 . Select all those you want previous screen and click Scan then PrivaZer adopts a similar approach
to keep to stop the related websites Clean to remove unwanted cookies. to deleting your browsing history and
logging you out, then click OK to other details of your internet
confirm. If you’re unsure, click the Browsing history and activities, but is able to perform a
‘Automatic keep’ button 3 to let internet cache deeper and more precise clean. Click
Privacy Eraser decide for you, though Anyone who wants to know which ‘Scan specific traces’ then ‘Internet
it mainly chooses cookies for websites you’ve visited and when can activities’ and select ‘Internet
webmail services. instantly find out by pressing Ctr-H to browsing’ ( 1 in our screenshot
PrivaZer’s cookie-cleaning works view your browser’s History. It’s the above).
in a different way by listing them all biggest potential privacy leak on any Click the relevant link for your
in one place, rather than organising PC, but few of us bother to regularly browser, such as ‘Firefox, Pale Moon,
them by browser. This makes it clear our histories to cover our online LibreWolf’ or ‘Chrome, Edge
easier to decide which cookies to tracks. Websites stored in your (Chromium), Brave, Vivaldi’ 2 to
retain and which to remove, History auto-complete when you start choose from a long list of data-
especially when they appear in typing their URLs into your browser’s deletion options. These include
several browsers. To access this address bar, which makes them ‘Visited sites’, ‘Typed sites’ (URLs you
option, click ‘Scan specific traces’ on quicker to revisit but also reveals manually entered into the address
the home screen and choose ‘Internet details of your web activities. bar), ‘Visited links’ (those you clicked
activities’. Select ‘Cookies, Super/ As you’d expect, Privacy Eraser’s on web pages), ‘Media cache’
Evercookies’ under ‘Select scans’ Browsers tab includes the option to (including images and videos), and
delete your Internet History from all ‘Downloads history’.
the browsers you have installed. You We particularly like that you can
should also tick the boxes to wipe the remove saved search queries from
following: Internet Cache – the your browser, both from its search
temporary internet files folder that box/address bar and from the
contains copies of images, videos and websites for Google, Bing and Yahoo.
other content from pages you’ve You’re likely to be surprised by the
visited; Sessions, which keeps logs of number of internet traces PrivaZer
the sites you’ve visited; and finds when you click Scan – nearly
Download History, which stores 77,000 on our PC – but these can all
details of files you’ve downloaded be deleted with a single click.
from the web. Note that deleting the
latter only removes the list of Saved passwords and form data
PrivaZer suggests which cookies to delete – these are downloads from your browser, not Storing passwords and other personal
mostly tracking cookies the files themselves. information in your browser,

78
 ERASE ALL YOUR
PRIVATE DATA

including your address, phone Privacy Eraser can delete

form history and saved
number and payment-card details, passwords from your
saves you a lot of time when signing browser.
into websites and filling in online
forms. But though it’s convenient to
auto-fill these details, the fact they
aren’t encrypted makes them
available to anyone with access to
your device or user profile.
Manually removing this data from
all your browsers will boost your
privacy and security, but it’s also a bit
of a hassle, which is where Privacy
Eraser comes in handy. Simply tick
the boxes AutoFill Form History and
Saved Passwords (see screenshot) for
each of your browsers to delete the In PrivaZer, you’ll find the option to Next until you reach the ‘Internet
information in your next clean-up. delete ‘Saved passwords’ in the browsers – Autocomplete histories’
This will prevent the data from ‘Internet browsing’ section (see screen.
auto-filling but also stop it being previous tip) – select ‘Typed info’ to In the ‘Remove autocomplete
stolen and reused. Click ‘Yes’ if the remove other auto-fill data. histories’ section, choose ‘Yes
program warns you that all your Alternatively, click the Options button (recommended for privacy)’ to delete
saved passwords will be cleared. on the home screen and keep clicking saved form data.

ERASE WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR SOFTWARE

Traces of your software usage use’. Programs are organised into
Browsers aren’t the only programs to categories such as Downloaders, ‘Video,
keep track of your recent activities. music software’ and ‘Other software’ ( 1 2
Other software stores details of the in our screenshot right) – PrivaZer will
documents, images, videos and other automatically detect which tools you
files that you’ve opened, edited, played have installed.
and saved. This information can be On our PC, it recognised more 1
easily viewed by anyone else who uses software than Privacy Eraser managed,
your computer. For this reason, it’s a including IrfanView, Thunderbird and
good idea to regularly wipe personal VLC. Click the Traces link 2 after
data from the tools most likely to running a scan to see details of the files,
compromise your privacy. folders and registry keys that will be PrivaZer tells you which traces it will clean to remove
Privacy Eraser provides plug-ins for cleaned. details of software usage.
more than 200 popular programs that
remove all traces of your usage by Unwanted software – in one click from your computer and click the
performing clean-ups without One feature offered by Privacy Eraser Uninstall button 3 to open either the
changing other settings. Click the but not by PrivaZer is an uninstaller, software’s own uninstaller or the
Applications tab to view available which lets you go further than just Windows tool. Once you’ve got rid of
plug-ins for programs and Microsoft wiping details of your software the unwanted software, it’s worth
Store apps installed on your PC. Our list activities by removing programs scanning for and wiping leftover
included 7-Zip, Microsoft Office, Paint. completely. Although you can do this traces using the advice we provide on
NET, TeamViewer and Windows using Windows’ uninstaller or a page 77.
Defender, but yours will vary. third-party tool such as BC Uninstaller
Select a plug-in, right-click it and (www.bcuninstaller.com), it’s a useful
choose Quick Clean, and Privacy Eraser additional option for purging your PC
will run a set of cleaning tasks for that of unwanted junk – and stops people
program. These target files, folders and knowing you’ve used a certain
registry keys that reveal details of what program.
you’ve been doing. You can also click To access the uninstaller, click the
the Custom tab to create your own Tools tab ( 1 in our screenshot right) on
plug-ins, though this requires you to Privacy Eraser’s home screen and select
2
know the exact items you want to Uninstaller in the top-right corner 2 . 3
clean. You should always close the This will display an alphabetical list of
relevant program before running its all the programs you have installed
plug-in or the data may not be properly – you can reorder these by install date
removed. or size by clicking the appropriate 1
In PrivaZer, you can access the same column heading, or search for a specific
software-cleaning feature by choosing tool. Privacy Eraser’s Uninstaller makes it easy to
‘Scan specific traces’ then ‘Software Select a program you want to remove remove all unwanted software.

79
 SECURELY ERASE FILES AND DRIVES
PrivaZer shreds sensitive files
Private files and folders and folders to make them
As well as performing impossible to recover.
system-wide clean-ups of
leftover traces, Privacy Eraser
and PrivaZer can also securely
delete specific items. This is
useful for erasing confidential
documents, personal photos restricted to the paid-for
and private videos from your version – although you can
PC, to ensure they can’t be choose the option, the button
recovered. As we mentioned to start wiping is greyed out
earlier, when a file is deleted in in the free edition.
the usual way, its contents PrivaZer won’t erase
remain available until its data everything on a drive, such as
is overwritten, along with programs, documents and
details of its name, photos, but it will remove all
modification date and leftover traces of your files
location. Only thoroughly and activities once you’ve
‘shredding’ the sensitive item formatted the drive yourself.
will prevent this data from Or you can use it to clean
falling into the wrong hands. elements that compromise
To securely erase files and your privacy on devices you
folders in Privacy Eraser, click the either Open (for files) or Select (for share with other people.
File Shredder tab on the home folders). Click ‘Scan in-depth’ on PrivaZer’s
screen. Click ‘Add files’ or ‘Add When PrivaZer’s ‘Delete without home screen and select the drive
folders’ to select the items you want leaving a trace’ window opens, click you want to wipe – this can be your
to delete – you can add several of ‘See advanced options’ (see main hard drive, an external SSD, a
each to the queue – then click Start screenshot above) to choose how USB stick, an SD card, a NAS drive
to ‘shred’ them. The catch is that the many passes it should perform when and even an MP3 player. The
free version of Privacy Eraser only overwriting data. These go up to 35, cleaning options available under
overwrites data once – when you but – as mentioned earlier – three ‘Select scans’ will depend on the
click ‘Security options’ to increase passes is sufficient to make data device, but for a comprehensive
the number of passes, you’ll be impossible to recover. Click ‘Start’ scrub just choose ‘Select all’. Click
prompted to upgrade to the and PrivaZer will thoroughly shred ‘Scan’ to analyse the drive for traces,
Professional Edition. Extra security the item, including all references to it then click ‘See cleanup options’.
options including ‘Scramble file/ in the MFT and leftover traces in free Select ‘Secure deletion’ in the
folder name’ and ‘Reset file size to drive space. dropdown menu (see screenshot
zero’ also require a paid-for licence, below) and specify the number of
which is annoying but one of the Entire hard drives and passes to perform when overwriting
few restrictions in an otherwise USB sticks data. Click the ‘Free space’ tab and
excellent free program. If you plan to sell or recycle your PC, choose ‘Normal cleanup’ to ensure
In PrivaZer, you can shred files it’s essential to completely wipe its every ‘free’ sector of the drive is
and folders without limitations by contents to remove every trace of wiped, then go back to the Scan
clicking ‘Delete without a trace’ on personal data and ensure it can’t be screen and click Clean. PrivaZer will
the home screen, then either recovered. This is also important if then securely erase your drive of all
‘Sensitive files’ or ‘Sensitive you have sensitive information stored privacy traces – this may take a long
directories’. Select the item you on removable media such as a USB time depending on the size and
want to delete – press Ctrl-A to stick. Privacy Eraser includes a Drive contents of the drive. You can click
choose more than one – then click Wiper for this purpose, but it’s Pause or Stop at any time, and click
Modify to lower the priority of the
cleaning process so it uses fewer
system resources and doesn’t slow
SHOULD YOU PAY FOR PRIVACY CLEANERS? your PC.
Unlike many free privacy tools, Privacy cleaning of Shellbags – registry files
Eraser and PrivaZer don’t nag you to containing data about the size, position
upgrade to their paid-for editions, and icons of folders – and automatic
though there are some benefits to clean-ups of data. Upgrading to the
doing so. As mentioned above, buying a Donors version for the amount of your
licence for Privacy Eraser – for choice – from $10 upwards – will
US$19.95 a year – unlocks its Drive unlock these options along with
Wiper and the full set of security automatic updates and the ability to
options for deleting files. You also get scan and clean from the command line.
free ‘24/7’ technical support and However, in both cases, the free
automatic updates when new versions versions of the programs will be more
of the program are released. than sufficient to erase personal data
The only notable features missing from your PC.
from the free version of PrivaZer are the
PrivaZer can securely erase all privacy traces from a
hard drive, SSD or USB stick.

80
 ERASE ALL YOUR
PRIVATE DATA

REMOVE EVEN MORE JUNK FROM YOUR PC

Schedule clean-ups for
convenient times
Both Privacy Eraser and PrivaZer let
you schedule clean-ups – using
settings you specify – to take place at
a frequency and time that’s
convenient for you, such as when
you’re not using your PC.
In Privacy Eraser, click the
Settings button in the top-right
corner, choose Schedule (see
screenshot right) and tick the
‘Schedule options’ box. Select how
frequently you want Privacy Eraser Privacy Eraser lets you schedule clean-ups for a day You can set Privacy Eraser to clean all your browsing
to delete private data from your PC – and time that suit you. data automatically.
weekly or monthly should suffice –
then specify when to perform the shut down your system automatically Perform automatic
clean-up and click Apply. once it’s finished cleaning. data clean-ups
In PrivaZer, click Scheduled on To do this in Privacy Eraser, either To ensure that private data never
the home screen then use the click the down arrow next to Quick remains on your PC for longer
dropdown menus to specify the Clean after performing a scan and than it needs to do, you can set your
frequency, day and time of the choose ‘Clean & Shut down’, or click privacy cleaner to delete it
clean-up. Select which drive(s) to that button on its home screen. You automatically. As mentioned
clean, click Setup to choose the can also click ‘Clean & Restart’ to opposite, PrivaZer only offers this
private data you want to wipe, then delete files that require you to option in its paid-for Donors version,
click OK to confirm. You can create reboot your PC to fully remove but Privacy Eraser provides it for free.
several scheduled tasks to perform them. Click ‘Monitoring’ in the program’s
different clean-ups for drives at In PrivaZer, click ‘Shut down PC Settings and select System
specific times. after cleaning’ (see screenshot Monitoring. Tick the ‘Browser
below left) in the bottom-left corner monitoring’ box to erase details of
Shut down your PC of a Scan screen to select that option your internet activities each time you
after cleaning in the menu that opens. Additional close your browser. Select the
Full clean-ups in both programs options include ‘Restart PC after browser you want to clean and
sometimes take longer than an hour, cleaning’, ‘PC in sleep mode after choose an action from the dropdown
which means you need to wait cleaning’ and – new in the latest menu, such as ‘Automatically clean
around to turn off your PC version – ‘Play a song when with notification’ (see screenshot
afterwards. To save yourself time and completed’. above). Tick the ‘System monitoring’
electricity, you can have either tool box to clean your PC using your
default settings when private data is
consuming a specific amount of disk
space.

Add cleaning options

to your right-click menu
Rather than open Privacy Eraser or
PrivaZer every time you want to
erase private data from a drive or
folder, you can add their cleaning
options to your right-click menu.
Open the Settings page in the first
tool and click General, then tick the
box ‘Add “Secure Erase with Privacy
Eraser” option to Windows Explorer
context menu’. You can also add the
option to the right-click menu for
your recycle bin.
In PrivaZer, choose ‘Advanced
options’ on the home screen and
click the General tab. In the
‘Installation of contextual menus’
section, select ‘For drives, storages’,
‘For files’ and ‘For directories’ to
add a ‘Delete without a trace’ option
to the right-click menus of drives,
files and folders. You can also add
an ‘Empty without a trace’ option
Set PrivaZer to shut down your PC automatically once it’s to your recycle bin’s right-click
finished cleaning. menu.

81
PC BUILDER

PC BUILDER

System News
Mark Williams is ready to get HAMRed on cheap high-capacity drives.

Hard drives, once the mainstay

of client computer mass SHOP TALK
storage, is now relegated to the How popular are HDDs in your desktop builds? Will 30TB+
backseat in current day PCs – if capacities keep them relevant for desktop PCs?
Mark Williams
they’re included in the system
Mark is an IT
professional with a at all. Jaimie, Leader Computers: their data including NAS both on
strong interest in Solid state drives have “We are installing spinning disks in and off-site, SAN and Datacentre.” 
voiding warranties. surpassed the price and less than 10 percent of system
capacity hurdles which, over a builds these days. Streaming Richard, Aftershock PC:
decade ago, merely made them services and online services have “We started dropping HDDs as a
a novelty when hard drives largely killed the need for mass default from our builds last year as
were still ruling the capacity storage for the average home user, SSD prices became much more
roost. It’s at a point now where with secondary drives primarily reasonable for a decent size. We
being for family photo backup or still give the option for customers
the market has completely content creators dealing with large to add them in and probably 40
flipped, and most consumer PCs amounts of video footage.  percent still do, but that
now only have a single SSD for That being said, we sell a huge percentage is dropping quickly as
mass storage. Cheaper systems number of large storage drives for the price of SSDs continues to
can still have HDDs due to their NAS devices, and businesses all drop.”
continued price/capacity need multiple ways to back up
competitiveness, but they’re
becoming few and far between
now.
With SSDs all but king in PCs, computing and storage needs, magnetic recording (CMR) is
how is it that the likes of concentrating storage in data capable of. Western Digital
Seagate, Toshiba and Western centres dotted around the globe created Enhanced PMR (ePMR)
Digital are still selling tens of and run by the likes of Amazon, technology to further extend
millions of HDDs a year? In a Google, Microsoft, Backblaze PMR (a form of CMR)
word, the cloud. and many others. The COVID19 technology potentially out to
While traditional on-site lockdowns of the past couple 30TB disks, but that’s very
storage for businesses is still years really accelerated growth much the end of the road for
common, more and more into the cloud by companies as PMR/CMR. Western Digital
businesses are migrating their their workforces became early on when talking post
data into the cloud for their de-centralised with work from PMR/CMR technologies was
home arrangements. With so very invested in Microwave-
much growth as a result it Assisted Magnetic Recording
"Solid state drives have surpassed makes high-capacity drives (MAMR) but this was always
the price and capacity hurdles which, very desirable to keep up with just a stop gap to Heat Assisted
increasing storage demands Magnetic Recording (HAMR)
over a decade ago, merely made them and to keep costs down. which many now agree is the
a novelty when hard drives were still At 22TB per drive currently long term future path for HDDs.
we’ve just about reached the With ePMR now filling that gap,
ruling the capacity roost." limits of what conventional it appears MAMR has fallen by
the wayside.
With Western Digital leaning
on ePMR for as long as it can it
means Seagate will be the first
to market with its next-gen
HAMR technology. And likely
means that Seagate may have a
technological advantage going
forward over Western Digital
and more experience with
HAMR before Western Digital
eventually comes to market
with its own HAMR products.
And Seagate isn’t stopping
there, with 5TB platters already
functioning in its labs, Seagate
expects 40TB+ drives to come
during 2024-2025 and 50TB+ to
come in 2026.

82
 PC BUILDER

Market Watch
A sampling of PC systems available this month.

CPL ONLINE RYZEN 5 RTX UMART G7 ULTRA PLE COMPUTERS ACE MINI
3060 TI DRAGON $3,699 | tinyurl.com/APC518UMT $4,285 | tinyurl.com/APC518PLE
$2,369 |tinyurl.com/APC518CPL
This system offers good firepower for Weighing in with a heftier price than the
The CPU and GPU pairing in this its price with only a couple of minor Umart G7 Ultra system while still
system is great, and neither will hold let downs. The i7 CPU provides performing in the same class, what does
the other back when gaming. The virtually all the gaming performance the extra $500 on the price tag here get
liquid-cooled CPU is no slouch even of an i9 without the throttling and you? A beefier CPU cooler with a 360mm
with a beefier GPU but with the extra heat issues. The 240mm AIO will AIO, and there’s also a newer Z790-based
cooling overhead available, and better suffice although a 360mm would’ve motherboard for more PCIe 4.0 lanes and
AM4 CPUs available, upgrading this been ideal with these hot 13th Gen faster memory support, which
system later for more performance will CPUs. unfortunately is entirely negated by
be a cinch, especially with the X570 Though the RTX 4070 Ti is solid, being a DDR4-based board instead of
motherboard. offering RTX 3090 Ti levels of DDR5, making the dearer Z790
The included RAM is also well performance, the 12GB VRAM could motherboard basically a waste of money.
chosen, being the sweet spot 3600MHz hinder 4K performance down the An average DDR4 kit and smaller
speed that Ryzen 5000 CPUs love. The road. The older Z690-based capacity SSD and power supply relative to
oversized for this build PSU encourages motherboard is fine as there’s not the Umart offering begin to tip this
future system upgrades too. Dual SSDs much being missed out on versus the system into a not-good value proposition.
mean there’s a lot of mass storage to newer Z790 chipset. Being DDR4 it Just like the performance, the case
last you years. saves on costs with the RAM, but it aesthetics are fantastic and help the
It’s a nice and well-considered PC for also means the CPU can’t fully stretch system at least look like the asking price.
those looking to start gaming at 1080p its legs. A solid build that keeps the
or 1440p with good potential for price in check. CPU: Intel Core i7 13700KF; Cooler: ID-Cooling
upgrades later as needed. ZoomFlow 360 XT Snow 360mm AIO;
CPU: Intel Core i7 13700KF; Cooler: be quiet! Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming WIFI
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X; Cooler: MSI MAG Pure Loop 2 FX 240mm AIO; Motherboard: D4 DDR4; Graphics: Asus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
CoreLiquid 240R V2; Motherboard: MSI MAG Z690 DDR4 based Graphics: MSI Geforce RTX TUF Gaming 12GB GDDR6X; Memory: Corsair
X570S Tomahawk Max WIFI; Graphics: MSI 4070 TI; Memory: Kingston 16GB Fury Beast 16GB Dominator Platinum RGB C16 3200MHz
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X 8G LHR; Memory: RGB 3200MHz DDR4; Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD; DDR4; Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 500GB M.2
Corsair 16GB DDR4 3600MHz; Storage: Crucial Power Supply: 850W; Case: be quiet! Pure NVMe SSD, WD Blue 1TB
BX500 2TB SATA SSD, Crucial P3 500GB PCIe Base 500FX. Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF3
M.2 SSD; Power Supply: MSI MPG A850GF 750W ATX 3.0; Case: Fractal Design Torrent
850W; Case: MSI MPG Gungnir 111R. Compact TG Mid Tower.

NZXT STREAMING PLUS PC

$2,799 | tinyurl.com/APC518NZX

Nzxt is offering some decent value with this system. The 5800X is a good
pairing for the RTX 3070 Ti. Cooled by a 120mm AIO, it offers solid gaming
performance and decent performance for those dabbling in productivity work
or game streaming. The AIO will restrict future upgrades as 12 and 16-core
AM4 parts will overwhelm it. 16GB of RAM is the sweet spot these days
although at 3200MHz it’s a little below the speeds Ryzen 5000 ideally likes.
The 1TB SSD is a big tick at this price too. Overall, lots of performance and
value here, a tad CPU-heavy compared to rival options at this price but that
just means a drop in GPU upgrade later won’t cause as much of a bottleneck.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X; Cooler: Nzxt Kraken 120; Motherboard: B550 based; Graphics:
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti; Memory: 16GB 3200 MHz DDR4; Storage: 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD; Power
Supply: Nzxt C750 750W; Case: Nzxt H5 Flow.

83
PC BUILDER

Blueprints
PC BUILDER

Value- and performance-driven hypothetical builds

BUDGET
A perfect balance between price and performance.

Last issue, we paid more attention to the overall costs of the

Budget builds and tried to level the playing field. With
increases across the board for PC components, our costs had
risen to the point where they weren’t exactly budget builds
anymore. So we made a few adjustments to bring prices
down while still offering well-rounded PCs. With changes to
the PSU, GPU, SSD, and HDD for the AMD machine, we
managed to bring the price down, but a few extra swaps this
time around have lowered it even further.
First, we swapped out our Asrock X570 Steel Legend ATX
AM4 motherboard and replaced it with an MSI B550M
PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX mobo. Although it’s a smaller
Micro ATX form factor board, it does everything we need it
to and saves $66. Our biggest saving came when
downgrading our GPU, instead of sticking with our Asrock
Radeon RX 6600 XT Challenger D OC 8GB, we opted for a
6500 XT card, an Asus TUF Gaming OC Radeon RX 6500 XT
4GB GPU, saving us $140. We kept the same HDD, SSD, and
RAM configuration but chose a smaller PSU as the larger
EVGA offering from the last issue was no longer on sale.
These changes bring our overall price for the AMD machine
down from $1,446 to $1,198 – a saving of $248. There’s a lacking a few features, this is the same B660M chipset. We
small hit to performance, due to our GPU and motherboard also swapped out the GPU for a similarly performing card,
alternatives, but nothing that will be a major detriment this time an older Asus TUF Gaming EVO GeForce GTX 1660
to this build. Ti OC 6GB. With comparable performance to the RTX 3050
As for the Intel build, last time we brought down the cost card before it, we saved an extra $110. Finally, we opted for
to $1,268 but, as with the AMD machine, we swapped our the same PSU from the AMD budget machine, bringing the
motherboard for an alternative Asrock model. Although total down to $1,268.

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

Part Price Part Price

Case Corsair 4000D Airflow $159 Case Corsair 4000D Airflow $159

PSU 450W EVGA 450 BR Bronze 80+ Gold NEW $74 PSU 450W EVGA 450 BR Bronze 80+ Gold NEW $74

Mobo Asrock B660M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1700 NEW $159 MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $179
Mobo
NEW
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X $209
CPU Intel Core i3-12100 $269
GPU Asus GeForce GTX 1660 TiTUF Gaming EVO OC 6GB NEW $379 GPU Asus TUF Gaming OC Radeon RX 6500 XT 4GB NEW $229
16GB (2 x 8GB) PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X $88 16GB (2 x 8GB) PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X $88
RAM RAM
RGB DDR4 @ 3200MHz RGB DDR4 @ 3200MHz
SSD 500GB PNY CS2140 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD $55 SSD 500GB PNY CS2140 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD $55
HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda Compute 7200 $85 HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda Compute 7200 $85
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM(Windows 11 Compatible) $60 OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM (Windows 11 Compatible) $60
Total $1,198 Total $1,268

84
 "To keep our Mid-
range machines
balanced, we’ve made
some changes to
lower the price and
maintain the
performance."

MID-RANGE
A game-ready machine that can also handle demanding work.

As in our previous issue, we tried to cut max boost core of up to 5.3GHz. We performance and efficiency, but the
down our prices for the Mid-range introduced the Asrock Radeon RX 6750 12600K is more than good enough to
machines. It’s difficult to do so while XT Phantom Gaming D OC 12GB GPU power our system and was $80 cheaper.
maintaining the same power and trying last time around, but we’re swapping The Asrock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/
to keep your components up to date. Of that for a cheaper alternative, the Asus D5 motherboard went up in price, so we
course, compatibility also plays a part, Dual Radeon RX 6750 XT OC 12GB, swapped it for the Gigabyte Z690
and upgrading your CPU may also which comes in at $649 – a saving of Gaming X ATX. The GPU had to change
require a new motherboard or RAM. $150. We also swapped out the ATX too, as the Asus GeForce RTX 3070 Dual
So, to keep our Mid-range machines motherboard for a Micro ATX Asrock V2 OC 8GB hiked up in price, so we
balanced, we’ve made some changes to B650M PG Riptide WIFI mobo, saving a brought in the Gigabyte Eagle OC
lower the price and maintain the further $130 over the previous Asrock GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB card to
performance. Kicking off, we swapped B650E PG Riptide WIFI ATX. That’s a replace it, at least until the 3070 cards
out the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X for the total saving of $372 this time. fall in price. Both machines receive the
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X. Granted, the Applying the same thinking to our EVGA 750 GA 80+ Gold PSU for under
7700X is a great chip but for a mid- Intel mid-range system, we reverted to $170, leaving us with a total gain of $342
range rig, the latter fits the bill with six the Intel Core i5-12600K from an Intel in pocket compared to last month’s
cores, 12 threads, and an impressive Core i5-13600K. We lose a little build.

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

Part Price Part Price
Case Nzxt H7 Flow $209 Case Nzxt H7 Flow $209
PSU 750W EVGA 750 GA 80+ Gold NEW $169 PSU 750W EVGA 750 BP 80+ Bronze NEW $169
Mobo Asrock B650M PG Riptide WIFI Micro ATX AM5 NEW $319 Mobo Asrock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 ATX LGA 1700 NEW $299
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 7600X NEW $399 CPU Intel Core i5-12600K NEW $419
Cooler Cooler Master Masterliquid ML240L RGB V2 $109 Cooler Cooler Master Masterliquid ML240L RGB V2 $109
GPU Asus Dual Radeon RX 6750 XT OC 12GB NEW $649 Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle OC 8GB NEW $599
GPU
32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance $239
RAM RAM 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5 CL40 @ 4800MHz $239
DDR5 CL40 @ 4800MHz
SSD 1TB Crucial P5 Plus NVME M.2 PCIe 4.0 $145 SSD 1TB Corsair MP600 PRO NH M.2 PCIe 4.0 $199

HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda Compute 7200 $85 HDD 2TB Seagate Barracuda Compute 7200 $85

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM (Windows 11 Compatible) $60 OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM (Windows 11 Compatible) $60

Total $2,383 Total $2,387

85
PC BUILDER

"With the recent release of

the next-generation Intel
and AMD processors,
Nvidia’s 40 series GPUs,
and AMD’s latest Radeon
RX 7000 series, these
systems have some
serious heat."

TURBO
The maximum PC.

For our top-tier Turbo machines, way over their RRP, but nobody wants Even that single change on the AMD
building a system with outright power to pay inflated prices, no matter how side is more exciting than the
in mind is the priority and keeping one special the product is. This month, complete lack of activity on the Intel
eye on the budget can take a backseat they’re back down to where they Turbo rig. One possible reason is that
here, well kind of. It would be easy to should be, so out goes the XFX we have recently added to both of
get carried away with adding Speedster Merc 310 Black Edition these systems, so they are certainly
unrealistic parts just for the sake of it, Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB and in future-proofed. The Asus GeForce RTX
but these systems are designed to comes the same model, but the XTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC 24GB is our
showcase some of the latest and variant with 4GB of extra VRAM. weapon of choice here and remains in
greatest component configurations, There’s no denying that this is a the build this month as it is still one of
after all. With the recent release of the mighty powerful GPU – it has a boost the ‘cheapest’ RTX 4090 cards you can
next-generation Intel and AMD clock of up to 2,615MHz and 24GB of pick up. We use that term lightly as it
processors, Nvidia’s 40 series GPUs, GDDR6 this card can easily game at 4K is still astronomically expensive, but
and AMD’s latest Radeon RX 7000 on ultra settings with FPS scores of 90 it’s the best available at the time of
series, these systems have some and above. That’s based on writing. Hopefully, we will get to see a
serious heat. benchmarks with the AMD Ryzen 9 slight decrease in RTX 4090 GPU
We can finally introduce the latest 7900X, which we also have in this prices soon as these cards rock, much
AMD GPU, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. AMD Turbo machine. Unfortunately, like the performance of both of these
In the previous issue, these cards were that’s the only change for the AMD rig. Turbo systems.

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

Part Price Part Price
Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Tempered Glass $279 Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Tempered Glass $279
PSU 1000W Corsair RM1000 80+ Gold $299 PSU 1000W Corsair RM1000 80+ Gold $299
Mobo Asrock X670E PG Lightning ATX AM5 $449 Mobo Asrock Z790 PG Lightning DDR5 LGA 1700 $359
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7900X $689 CPU Intel Core i9-13900K $929
Cooler Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB 66.7 CFM 360mm $159 Cooler Nzxt Kraken X73 73.11 CFM 360mm $279
XFX Speedster Merc 310 Black Edition Radeon $1,899 GPU Asus GeForce RTX 4090 TUF Gaming OC 24GB $3,299
GPU
RX 7900 XTX 24GB NEW
64GB (2x 32GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5 $420
RAM 64GB (2x 32GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5 CL40 @ 5200MHz $420 RAM
CL40 @ 5200MHz
SSD 1TB WD Black SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 $189 SSD 1TB WD Black SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 $189
HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $189 HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $189
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM (Windows 11 Compatible) $60 OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM (Windows 11 Compatible) $60
Total $4,632 Total $6,302

86
The source for tech buying advice
techradar.com
 HOW-TO
HOW-TO
TO P T I P S TO TA C K L E T E C H T R O U B L E S

QUICK TIPS

The problem solvers

The APC team field problems across the spectrum of devices and software.
Learn a new trick or fix you can use.

Secure dead laptop AirPrint upgrade an SD card via the Files app, then print
My Lenovo Yoga laptop died last year I’ve been an avid reader of APC for them directly from this. Apple sells
and is still sitting in a drawer at home. many years, so I hope you can help me. I such an adapter, but it costs $49.
I’d like to recycle it, but it contains lots have a Canon MG6150 printer (pictured, Thankfully, third-party adapters are
of personal data that I can’t delete below) that connects wirelessly to my available that work just as well but cost
because I can’t boot it up. I thought of PC. My children bought me an iPad, around $20.
removing its internal storage but that’s which I’ve tried in vain to connect to Or, you could upgrade your printer
easier said than done because the unit the printer. to one that supports
is glued together. I’ve seen YouTube Apparently, I need a AirPrint. Obviously,
videos in which people use a heat gun printer that supports
"My Lenovo Yoga that’s not the eco-
to soften the glue so they can prise the AirPrint, but mine laptop died last year friendly option, but
back off. Is that really what you have to doesn’t. It seems a
do these days to disable a redundant waste to replace a
and is still sitting in most modern wireless
printers, even the
device? Or would you advise using a perfectly functioning a drawer at home. I’d really cheap ones, do
hammer? printer, so I hope you
Roger Hughes can help me get around
like to recycle it, but support AirPrint.
this problem. it contains lots of Boot screen before
APC responds: Taking a hammer to Bill Green
personal data that I BIOS
your Yoga might be tempting, but we Every time I start my
wouldn’t recommend it. The lithium- APC responds: can’t delete because PC, a message appears
ion batteries in modern mobile devices You’ve already telling me to press F1 to
are energy dense and, if pierced, can outlined the basic
I can’t boot it up." enter the BIOS settings.
explode into flames. problem, which is that When I do this, it takes
Your question highlights a real your printer doesn’t support AirPrint. me to a second screen. I don’t have a
concern, however, and there’s no Your model was manufactured in 2010, clue what it is or what to do, so I just
single solution. In your case, the best a few months before Apple launched press F10 to select the ‘Save and exit’
option is the one you suggested: open AirPrint. Since then, various option, and then the PC starts up and
the device and remove the hard drive developers have created paid-for runs normally. Having to do this every
or SSD. You didn’t say which model of Windows tools that attempt to bring time isn’t good for my blood pressure.
Yoga you have, but iFixit hosts AirPrint to incompatible printers. Can you help?
hundreds of illustrated guides that However, finding ways around Ron Cushing
explain how to take apart various Apple’s ever-evolving security is tricky
devices. The Yoga section is at for developers, so something that APC responds: This is usually a sign
(tinyurl.com/3rrrehyk). works today might not work tomorrow. that the CMOS backup battery on your
When you get to the drive, you could That’s why we don’t recommend PC’s motherboard has run out, which
remove it and smash it. But as it paying for any of these products. means that when you switch off the
probably still works, a better option is So, where does that leave you? Well, mains power to your PC, you are in
to connect it to a PC using a cable. If it’s you can print directly from SD memory effect resetting the BIOS. That’s why
a SATA drive, for example, you need a cards. You could buy an adapter that your PC asks you to check the settings
SATA-to-USB cable for around $15. lets you copy photos from your iPad to each time you switch it back on.
Although having to press F10 to save
and continue is an annoyance, it’s no
cause for alarm.
Fitting a new CMOS battery is
usually an easy job. We gather from
the photos of the BIOS screen you sent
us that your computer has an Asus
Prime B250M-K motherboard, so we
can even show you exactly where the
battery is. Buy a new CR2032 battery,
then open the PC.
Simply prise out the old cell and pop
in the new one. The next time you
press F10 to save and exit the BIOS
screen, your PC will save the settings,
and you won’t have to do it again in the
future.

Back(up) to the future

I’ve finally decided to try installing an
Canon’s MG6150 doesn’t offer AirPrint, but can print directly from memory cards. SSD in my PC, following your SSD

88
feature in the October 2022 issue.
However, I have some questions. First,
how do I make a list of all the programs
installed on my PC so I can reinstall
them easily on my new drive? Is there a
listing utility, or will I have to resort to
pen and paper?
I’ve read online that I should do a
clean install, but what about my
Windows settings? Finally, would
copying Thunderbird’s ‘xxxxx.default’
directory to the new drive keep all my
calendars, emails, and contacts intact?
Alan Brown

APC responds: You can view a list of

your apps by clicking Settings
followed by Apps, then ‘Apps &
features’, but Windows doesn’t provide
an easy way to print it. Thankfully,
NirSoft’s free UninstallView tool can
help. Download the program from
(tinyurl.com/5n6k6fh2), launch it,
then press Control-A to select all listed If your PC is forgetting its BIOS settings, replace this battery.
apps. Now open the File menu and
choose Save Selected Items. Type a sorts the entries so that those from APC responds: Yes! When you
name for the file, then click Save to developers other than Microsoft are bought your stick, it was probably
create a text file containing a list of all grouped together. These are marked in formatted with the FAT32 file system.
installed apps. pink. This is common, because FAT32 is
Your Windows 10 or 11 settings Next, hold down the Shift key while compatible with a diverse range of
should be automatically synced via clicking on the first and last pink entry devices, from Windows PCs to in-car
your Microsoft account. Click Start to select them all. Right-click the stereos. However, for trivial
followed by Accounts and then ‘Sync selection and choose Disable Selected historical reasons, FAT32 imposes a
your settings’, and then ensure the Items, clicking Yes when prompted. 4GB size limit on individual files. So,
‘Sync settings’ switch is in the On Now choose Options, Restart Explorer while you could copy several 4GB files
position (along with the various (again, click Yes when prompted). Try to your stick without complaint, it
switches below it). right-clicking, and if the problem has would refuse to hold even a single
As for your Thunderbird question, gone away, you know one of the entries 5GB file.
the short answer is yes, copying this you’ve disabled is responsible. So that’s probably the cause of your
directory will work. Good luck, and From here, re-enable problem. The solution
enjoy your new SSD! entries one at a time, is to format the stick
restarting File Explorer "Every time I start using a different file
Unresponsive File Explorer after each one to see if my PC, a message system. Modern
Something weird is happening in the problem reappears. Windows PCs use the
Windows. I can drag, drop and double- Once you’ve identified appears telling me NTFS file system,
click files as usual, but as soon as I the culprit, leave its to press F1 to enter which removes
right-click a file or folder, File Explorer shell extension almost all practical
becomes unresponsive. How do I disabled or uninstall the BIOS settings." limits on file and
fix this? the program. partition size, but it
William Erickson might create
Memory stick madness compatibility problems with devices
APC responds: The culprit is I’ve got a 32GB USB memory stick that that don’t run Windows. A much
probably a piece of third-party I’ve had for several years and has better file system for memory sticks
software that has added a shell always worked well. Recently, I tried to is exFAT, which offers excellent
extension to the right-click context copy a 10GB video file to it, but compatibility but is a fraction slower
menu in Windows. To locate it, we Windows 10 told me there wasn’t than NTFS.
recommend downloading the free enough room. I checked and there was Formatting a memory stick is quick
ShellExView tool (tinyurl. well over 20GB free. I know the stick and easy, but bear in mind that it
com/35cwcypy) from the ever-reliable has the advertised 32GB capacity erases the contents, so make sure you
NirSoft. because in the past I have copied nearly copy anything you need from it first.
Once installed, launch the program 30GB of files to it. I was able to copy Then, in File Explorer, right-click the
then choose Options followed by ‘Filter other video files to it without any memory stick and choose Format.
by Extension Type’. Click ‘Context problems, but not this large one. Any Next, in the Format box, open the
Menu’ so it’s the only entry that’s idea what’s going on? ‘File system’ dropdown menu and
highlighted, then click OK. Now click Seb Freeman choose exFAT. Finally, tick the Quick
the Company column header, which Format box, then click Start.

89
 HOW-TO

WINDOWS

Block all adverts in Windows

Microsoft is peppering its operating system with nags, nudges, recommendations and offers.
Nik Rawlinson explains how to eradicate these annoyances.

These days many people don’t

have to pay to get a new version
1
of Windows – they simply upgrade
for free. Perhaps that’s why
Microsoft is now increasingly trying
other ways to recoup its costs,
including splashing adverts across 2
its operating systems (both
Windows 10 and 11). They’re
popping up in the Start menu,
Cortana, Action Centre, the lock
screen and more.
Most of the adverts originate from
Microsoft itself, and are mostly
offers for its paid-for subscriptions
and suggestions to perform tasks
within Windows, rather than
promotions from third parties, but
they’re annoying all the same. Here 3
we explain how to block them.

Block ads in the Start menu

and on lock screen Turn off this option to keep your lock screen free of Microsoft’s clutter.
Let’s start by disabling adverts in
the Windows 10 Start menu. Press similar option to disable ‘Get fun
Windows key-I to open Settings, facts, tips and more on your lock
then click Personalisation, followed screen’ in the same settings location
by Start on the left ( 1 in our (this doesn’t mention Cortana
screenshot below left). because it’s not a default feature in
Click the slider below ‘Show that operating system). You’ll find a
suggestions occasionally in Start’ so box you need to untick rather than a
it slides to the left, and turns from slider to turn off.
blue (on) to grey (off) 2 .
While in the Personalisation Turn off ads in the Action Centre
section, also click ‘Lock screen’ on Adverts are also popping up as
the left ( 1 in our screenshot above), notifications in the Action Centre,
then select either Picture or which is the panel that appears when Untick this option to prevent persistent notifications
Slideshow in the Background you click the speech bubble to the from the Action Centre.
dropdown menu 2 and turn off the right of your taskbar in Windows 10,
slider below ‘Get fun facts, tips and or the clock in Windows 11. experience after updates…’, and
more from Windows and Cortana on To disable these notifications in ‘Suggest ways to get more out of
your lock screen’ 3 . Windows 10, return to the main Windows…’. If you don’t think you
In Windows 11, you’ll find a Settings page, then click System need this kind of help, unticking
followed by ‘Notifications & actions’ these stops Microsoft’s messages.
on the left. Here, untick ‘Get tips,
tricks, and suggestions as you use Remove ads from the Start menu
Windows’. If you’re using Windows Sometimes, what seems to be an
2 11, in Settings click Notifications in advert is actually a program that
the main section of the window. was installed as part of a Windows
Scroll down and click ‘Additional update. For example, recently in
settings’, then untick the box next to some countries – including the UK
‘Get tips and suggestions when using – Microsoft installed apps for
Windows’ (see screenshot above). Disney+ and Spotify, even if you had
The other two options in this never previously used them. These
section (in both Windows 10 and 11) appeared as live tiles in Windows 10
are intended to help explain what’s ( 1 in our screenshot above), and on
1 changed whenever your PC has been the Start menu in Windows 10 & 11.
updated and to provide tips on how To remove a Windows 10 live tile
to get the most out of this updated from the Start menu and reclaim the
Disable suggestions in the Windows 10 Start menu by version. Respectively, the options are space used by a program you need
turning off this setting. ‘Show me the Windows welcome quick access to, right-click the tile

90
 2 BLOCK ADS IN
‘SPLASH SCREENS’
Even if you block adverts in
Windows itself, you’ll still see
advertising online – and some of
this may creep into programs that
pull in promotions to display on
splash screens that appear when
they first launch. These have
nothing to do with Microsoft or
Windows, and are more difficult to
block since the process to do so
varies for each developer.
However, you can usually stop
1 splash screens showing at all,
which is an alternative (and
effective) way of tackling the
problem. Look for an option to
‘Show at launch’ at the bottom of
the screen and, if it’s ticked,
untick it. If there is no option, open
3 the program’s Settings or Tools
menu, and look for a similar
setting.

Turn off live tiles in Windows 10 to block any more adverts for apps like Spotify.

Stop Microsoft tracking you Disable ads in Outlook

Some of Microsoft’s adverts you just Adverts are also now appearing in
can’t block, though at least you can Outlook.com’s interface, unless you
stop the company tracking you so the have a Microsoft 365 subscription.
ads aren’t personalised to your A subscription for home use costs
interests. Log into your Microsoft $99 a year for a single user, and
account at account.microsoft.com, $129 a year for a family
then click Privacy on the blue bar at membership, which can be used by
the top of the screen. Scroll down to up to six people.
‘More privacy settings’ at the bottom You may also have noticed ads
Turn off this setting to stop Microsoft showing you of the page, click ‘Review ad settings’, appearing as what look like
adverts based on your interests. then switch off the slider ordinary messages in the Outlook
below ‘See ads that interest you’ (see app for Android or iOS. Microsoft
and hover over More, then click ‘Turn screenshot above). confirms on its support pages that
Live Tile off’ 2 . If you think you’ll Back in Windows, you can opt out of Outlook Mobile is an “ad-supported
never use the associated program and tracking when browsing with product for free users” (www.
would rather remove it, click Microsoft’s Edge browser. Click the snipca.com/44282). The company
Uninstall instead 3 . three dots to the right of the address points out that these adverts are
To uninstall a program from bar, then click Settings. Click indicated by the word ‘Ad’ inside a
Windows 11, or a Windows 10 program ‘Privacy, search, and services’ in the blue box (see screenshot left).
that doesn’t appear as a live tile, sidebar, and make sure the slider next The app lets you organise your
right-click its entry on the Start to ‘Tracking prevention’ is switched emails into a single inbox
menu, then click Uninstall. on (to the right). Based on the containing every message, or you
descriptions displayed choose can split it into two inboxes –
between Basic, Balanced or Strict ‘Focused’ for important emails, and
tracking prevention by clicking one of ‘Other’ for the rest. It distinguishes
the boxes below. Some websites may these based on which emails you
not work as expected if you enable the open and reply to. Emails from
Strict option so switch back to Basic loved ones will appear in Focused,
or Balanced if you have any problems. for example, while newsletters you
rarely bother with get elbowed into
Other.
Previously, Microsoft only put
ads in the Other inbox for free
users, but has recently started
placing them in the single inbox as
well. One way to see ads less
frequently is to tap Focused above
your messages (see screenshot left).
This moves them automatically to
Select the Focused inbox in the Outlook phone app to Adverts are appearing in the Outlook app disguised the Other inbox.
force ads into the ‘Other’ inbox. as normal messages.

91
 HOW-TO

MAC OS

Make the most of Notes

Discover all the new and useful features on offer in the Notes app.

IT WILL TAKE Apple’s Notes app was, for dalliance with skeuomorphism More extensive features
5 minutes a long time, unloved both by when Apple decided it would be The ability to share, lock,
users and, seemingly, by Apple a good idea to make digital notes create and add to notes from
YOU WILL LEARN itself. Updates were uninspiring look like more like paper. anywhere using Quick Notes,
How to open and and did nothing to help it All that has changed, though. and organise them using tags
navigate System
Settings to configure
compete with the dozens of And the last couple of updates to and folders have all made the
your Mac other note-taking apps available all Apple’s platforms have seen app a genuinely useful tool
for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Notes improve in leaps and and a serious option for
YOU’LL NEED And there was a disastrous bounds. anyone who has previously
macOS 13 only ever considered using the
likes of Evernote or
Microsoft’s OneNote.
Smart Folders now enable
you to specify the conditions
a note must meet to appear
in the folder. And you can
even collaborate on notes
with other people and get
updates on changes they have
made to a note since you last
viewed it.
Notes also has a bunch of
Shortcut actions, and there
are several pre-cooked
Shortcuts in that app’s gallery
GENIUS TIP! that use Notes. We
To enable access particularly like Day in
to Quick Note from Review which asks you
Control Centre, go
to Settings > questions about how your day
Control Centre and has gone and what you hope
tap ‘+’ next to for the following day and
Quick Note. Notes now enables you to customise filters in Smart Folders to make it easier to find the records it as note in Notes.
note you need. Kenny Hemphill

92
HOW TO USE THE LATEST FEATURES IN NOTES

1 LOCK A NOTE ON MAC 2 SEARCH FOR A NOTE 3 CREATE A SMART FOLDER

Go to Notes > Settings and, in the Locked Tap or click in the search field. To look for In the Mac version of Notes, click New
Notes section, choose options for locking notes in one of the Suggested groups, tap or Folder at the bottom of the sidebar; in iOS
notes. The default is to use your login click on the search term. Otherwise, type a or iPadOS, tap the new folder icon, then On
password. Select the note you want to lock, term in the search field. You can use natural My Phone or iCloud. Type a name for the
click the padlock in the toolbar and choose language like ‘notes created last week’. folder, and tap Make Into Smart folder.
Lock Note.

4 DEFINE THE SMART FOLDER 5 CONVERT A FOLDER 6 USE QUICK NOTES ON IOS
After naming the folder, click or tap ‘all’ to On Mac, select a folder then click the ‘…’ From any app on iPhone, tap the Share
choose whether all or any conditions need button next to it. On iOS, go to the Folder menu and choose ‘Add to New Quick Note’.
to be met. Tap a filter, choose the options view and tap Edit, then tap More. Choose A Quick Note will open with a link to the
for that filter, and then choose the ‘Convert to Smart Folder’, read the advice document in the app. Add your own text,
parameters, like Tags > Any Selected Tag > and, if you want to proceed, choose Convert. images or links to the note, then tap Save to
[tag names]. save the Quick Note.

7 COLLABORATE WITH A LINK 8 MANAGE SHARED NOTES 9 REFLECT ON THE DAY

Select the note that you want to collaborate Select a shared note and click the head and Launch the Shortcuts app and go to the
on and click or tap the Share icon. Choose shoulders icon. To see what has changed Gallery. Search for Reflect. Click the ‘+’
Collaborate then tap or click ‘Only invited since you last worked on it, choose Show All to add it to your Shortcuts. Activate Siri and
people can edit’ and choose your options. Activity or Show Highlights. To change say ‘Reflect on the Day’. Answer the
Click Invite with Link, type a name, then sharing options, select Manage Shared questions and, when you’re done,
choose Copy Link. Note. the results will be saved to Notes.

93
 HOW-TO

MOBILE DEVICES

Phone and Tablet Tips

Brilliant things to do on your device

ANDROID & iOS quickly diagnose if there’s trouble with

Check if an online service your connection or if there’s a more
has gone offline widespread fault.
When you’re having problems To use this new feature, install the
accessing a website, app or your Speedtest app for Android (www.snipca.
internet network, it’s useful to know com/44118) or iOS (www.snipca.
whether the problem is at your end or com/44119) and tap the Status tab at the
caused by the service you’re using. bottom of the screen (see screenshot 1
One of the best ways to find out is to below). This lists thousands of online
check Downdetector (downdetector. services and tells you at a glance if they’re
com.au), which lets people report issues presently offline or experiencing other
they’re currently experiencing with problems – entries with a red line and
online services. Downdetector has now exclamation mark at the top of the list
been integrated with the brilliant free have the most reported issues. Tap a
app Speedtest by Ookla, so you can service for a graph and pie chart showing
the number of reports over the last 24
1 2 hours in a number of categories,
including landline internet, mobile
internet, TV streaming, email or total
blackout. Tap the blue Report A Problem
button 2 to share details of the trouble data to share – select ‘Do not allow’ for
you’re having and make Downdetector’s any options you’re uncomfortable with.
data more accurate.
This a great addition to Speedtest, ANDROID
which has long been our favourite tool Block video adverts
for checking a connection’s download in Edge for Android
and upload speeds. It also includes a In the past, we’ve believed that the
network-coverage map, a video- best way to block ads on YouTube is
streaming test and a free VPN. When you to watch videos in Brave Private Web
first run the app, you can choose which Browser for Android (www.snipca.

BEST NEW APPS

What you should install this month

TO-DO BLOCKS FACADES AMAZON PHOTOS

Free | Android www.snipca.com/44123 Free | iOS www.snipca.com/44125 Free | Android www.snipca.com/44126
iOS www.snipca.com/44127
Some to-do list apps are as hard work as Apple fans will love this app, which lets you
the tasks themselves, but To-Do Blocks browse every current (and former) Apple The redesigned Amazon Photos app for
couldn’t be simpler. Add a colour-coded Store around the world. Facades tells you Android (the iOS version was updated in
block for each thing you need to do, when each store opened, its location, its January) makes it easier to browse your
including optional notes and an icon; design style – complete with illustrative gallery with one hand, and its improved
rearrange blocks in order of importance; photos – and its facilities, such as Pickup search filters help you quickly find shots of
and tap a task to mark it as Done. The app Counter. Tap through to the store’s website places, objects and people. Tap the new
also features a dark mode. to check for opening times. paper-aeroplane button to share images
and videos privately.

94
 BEST APPS FOR...
Reverse searches
If you want to save a web page to read
later, tap the Share button in your mobile
browser, select WhatsApp and choose
yourself as the recipient.
Note that the new ‘message yourself’
feature only works in the WhatsApp
mobile app, not WhatsApp Web or
Desktop, and is rolling out gradually, so
you might not see it yet.

ANDROID & iOS

Sign out of Netflix on
specific devices GOOGLE LENS
Netflix will soon start charging Free | Android www.snipca.com/44130
you to share your account with iOS www.snipca.com/44131
people who don’t live with you, which Use Google Lens to take a photo of any
com/43958) and iOS (www.snipca. could be a problem if you’ve already given animal, plant or object, or choose a picture
com/43959). There’s now another way to your password to a friend, colleague or from your library, to look it up online and
avoid this nuisance using a secret option ex-partner. To prevent unauthorised find out what it is. Its reverse-search results
in Microsoft’s Edge browser for Android access to your account, Netflix has added include visual matches on sites, which you
(www.snipca.com/44120). This an option to its mobile apps and website can visit for more information. On iOS, you
complements the Adblock Plus-powered that make it easy to view all devices on need the Google or Google Photos app to
ad blocker built into Edge – to switch this which you’re currently signed in, and access Lens.
on, tap the three-dot button at the bottom sign out of them with a single tap. Best For: Identifying mystery objects
of the browser and select Settings then This is also handy if you’ve
‘Privacy and security’. Tap ‘Block ads’ and downgraded your Netflix account to a
enable the ‘Block ads’ option. Basic plan – which only lets you stream to
To activate the new feature for one device at a time. Previously, you
blocking video ads, type edge://flags could sign out of all devices at once, but
into Edge’s address bar and press Enter to the new feature gives you more
load the Experiments page. Search for the flexibility.
entry Edge Block Video Ads (see To remove specific devices from your
screenshot left), choose Enabled in the Netflix account, open the app on your
dropdown menu next to it and restart phone or tablet and tap your profile
Edge. picture in the top-right corner. Select
When you visit YouTube or another ‘Account’, swipe down to ‘Security & SHAZAM: MUSIC DISCOVERY
video site, you should now be able to Privacy’ and tap ‘Manage access and Free | Android www.snipca.com/44128
watch content without having to sit devices’. This will list the most recently iOS www.snipca.com/44129
through annoying ads. Although the active devices on your account, the name Shazam can identify virtually any song
experiment states only that “Edge will try of the profile and when and where they that’s playing on the radio or TV, in a shop
to block video ads”, we found the feature last watched Netflix. Tap ‘Sign out’ (see or restaurant, or anywhere else. Simply tap
worked very well, though we can’t screenshot left) to disconnect them – you the button on its home screen and it will
imagine Google will be pleased. can change your Netflix password to stop listen for music and tell you the name of the
them logging into your account again. track. It’s impressively fast and accurate,
ANDROID & iOS and provides lyrics.
Send WhatsApp messages Best For: Identifying unknown songs
to yourself
WhatsApp has added lots of
useful features this year and is
rounding off 2022 with the welcome new
ability to send messages to yourself. This
gives you a way to quickly save notes,
reminders and interesting web links, and
to test that content displays properly
before you share it with other people.
To access this new option in WhatsApp
for Android or iOS, tap the Message
button in the bottom-right corner of the
app’s Chat screen. You will now see your SMARTIFY: ARTS AND CULTURE
own account at the top of the Contacts Free* | Android www.snipca.com/44134
list, while the rest of your contacts are iOS www.snipca.com/44166
listed alphabetically. Tap your account Art galleries rarely include much detail
name – this may be labelled ‘My Number about their paintings, but Smartify will fill
(You)’ (see screenshot above) – and write a you in. Scan an artwork, sculpture or object
*Contains in-app purchases

message as you would normally, in a museum or gallery and the app will
attaching files or inserting emojis and identify it and provide you with a wealth of
GIFs as required. Tap ‘Send’ and the interesting information. You can also scan
message will appear in your Chats list, reproductions of pieces to discover where
so you can continue a conversation with to find the originals.
yourself. Best For: Identifying works of art

95
 HOW-TO

LINUX

Nifty note-taking with Obsidian

Nate Drake walks you through adopting the almighty Markdown-based note-taking app Obsidian
to see whether it lives up to its legend.

Obsidian’s website describes

the app as “a second brain for
you, forever”. In plain English,
that means a tool that can help
QUICK TIP! you take and organise a colossal
If you haven’t used number of notes in a simple way,
Markdown before, from basic study notes to a
check out Matt full-blown wiki.
Cone’s awesome The program makes use of the
guide at www.
markdown Markdown markup language to
guide.org. Both the format text, making it easy to
Basic Syntax and import and export files. This
Cheat Sheet pages simplifies tasks such as using
have all the links to jump between notes and
information you organising large amounts of
need to get started. information.
Obsidian is not FOSS but the Expand Obsidian’s features by installing free community plugins, such as
free tier fully supports Linux, Advanced Tables, which supports inserting Excel-like sheets.
doesn’t require registration and
has some very powerful features. cd to navigate to your Downloads and libfuse2 by running sudo
The program itself was developed folder. You can then use snap on apt-get install fuse libfuse2 from the
by Shida Li and Erica Xu, who were the relevant file to install it – for terminal. Next, right-click the file
unhappy with the existing example: in your Downloads folder. Choose
note-taking software on offer. $ snap install –dangerous –classic Properties and toggle Executable
There’s also a thriving Obsidian obsidian_1.0.3_amd64.snap As Program. (Hardcore Linux
community (https://obsidian. Note that because this is a users may prefer to use chmod +x
md/community) and a host of third-party Snap file, you must use to do this.) Next double-click to
devs creating plugins to improve the –dangerous flag. You also need run Obsidian.
its rather minimalist interface. to enter your admin password. The installers weigh in well
Once installed, Obsidian appears under 100MB, making Obsidian
Pick your package in Applications. extremely lightweight.
Obsidian is extremely Linux- The Obsidian website, however,
friendly, being available uses a large purple button to push One from the vaults
via Snap, Flatpak and an the AppImage option, which has On your first launch, Obsidian
Obsidian uses AppImage. Head over to https:// the advantage of working with offers three main options. Resist
Markdown to easily obsidian.md/download to get virtually every flavour of Linux. the urge to do a Quick Start and
link between
different notes and started. The AppImage can also run click Create to open a new
images. The Ubuntu users will find it easiest directly from the folder where it’s so-called vault.
program suggests just to click Linux (Snap) to downloaded. You first need to set a name for
media in your vault download the file. Open the If you want to install this way, the vault, which will contain all
as you type. terminal and use first make sure you have both fuse the Markdown files for this
particular project. Next, click
Browse to choose where to save it.
Obsidian automatically creates a
folder with the project name –
Lighthouse Project, for example
– but we took the opportunity to
create a parent folder for this and
future vaults, imaginatively
named vaults. Click Open, then
Create to confirm your choices.
When the Obsidian dashboard
itself launches, you’ll see the
interface is very spartan. This is
deliberate and in keeping with
the Markdown philosophy of
having a simple, stripped-down
text interface. On the plus side,
it’s easy to navigate.
Start your first Obsidian
Markdown note by

96
clicking Create New File. We
decided to begin with a Statement
of Intent for our project. Change OBSIDIAN AUGMENTATION
Untitled to give this note a name. Obsidian is designed to be a stripped-down click Enable to get it working.
From here, you can enter text in note-taking app, ideal for importing existing We especially like the Day And Night
projects or starting new ones. You can theme, which lets Obsidian automatically
Markdown format. If this is your
hugely expand its functionality, though, by toggle between modes, and Advanced
first time using Markdown, we using plugins. Tables, which makes drawing tables much
should explain that it’s extremely To get started, you need to manually easier than typing them in Markdown.
easy to pick up. Obsidian has enable community plugins. Click the Gear The Calendar plugin allows Obsidian to
already created a main heading icon on the bottom-left and choose display a simple calendar in the right-hand
for you. You can also create Community Plugins > Turn On Community pane. (You need to click the Expand icon at
subheadings by placing ## before Plugins to leave Restricted Mode. Next, the top-right to see this.) Click on a day to
a new line of text. Use one or two * click Browse to see what’s available. Search view your existing to-do list for that date or
before and after text to make it or scroll to find a  plugin you like and click to create one.
Open In Obsidian. Firefox asks you to Make sure you back up all your work first
italic or bold respectively.
confirm by clicking Open Link. Now click before installing plugins. You may need to
You can also place web links in Install. Once installed, you may need to restart Obsidian for them to take effect.
Markdown documents – for
example:
My favourite magazine is [APC](https://
apcmag.com/). The graph view is
There are several ways to write an excellent feature
lists. The simplest is to number for seeing all your
them with a bracket – for example, notes in one place
and how they relate
1) , 2) , 3) and so on – because
to each other.
Obsidian automatically recognises
these and formats your text
accordingly. Place a ___ to draw a
neat line.
One particularly impressive
aspect of Obsidian is that you can
also paste in formatted text and it
does its best to preserve the
formatting. In our tests, we pasted
in a paragraph from Wikipedia
and all the special characters and
web links were preserved. This
may be a relief if you have existing There may be times where you example, #historynotes . Click
documents that you want to use want to link to another note or Open Graph Settings on the
with Obsidian. picture without embedding the right while in Graph view to
It’s clear that Obsidian’s whole thing in the file. For toggle displaying tags.
developers have tried to make the instance, our Statement of Intent
editor as WYSIWYG as possible, has links to other notes Observations
although you can click the icon at containing more information There’s much to love about
the top-right to switch between about the lighthouses we plan to Obsidian. Setup is fairly easy and
reading and editing mode. restore. If you want just to writing notes is a dream, even if
Markdown purists may prefer to include a link, simply type [[ you’re not very familiar with
click the ... options icon to switch without the ! . Markdown. This article has
to Source Mode to see the raw text. If you’re managing a large focused on the free version of the
Click the New Note icon at the project, navigating all these links app, which doesn’t include the
top-left each time you want to and pictures may not be easy. To billable Sync and Publish
create a separate file. make life simpler, consider services.
Alternatively, click + to open a clicking the New Folder icon at Sync enables you to save your
new tab and create or open a note the top-left to drag and drop notes in encrypted format across
from there to switch between pictures or notes into logical all your devices, though for only
them easily. All notes are saved categories, such as images. slightly more trouble, you can
automatically in Markdown Obsidian automatically updates install a plugin to encrypt your
format to your vault. any existing links. notes (see boxout, above) and
For a full top-down oversight of save them to a cloud folder.
Pics and links your project, click Open Graph Obsidian supports exporting
Markdown was built to allow easy View in the left-hand pane. This notes to PDF format and
cross-linking and sharing of info, is where Obsidian really comes Markdown plays well with most
and Obsidian has turned this into into its own, because you can see word processors, but Publish is
an art form. The easiest way to the various links between notes probably the best way to go if you
place an image inside a note is and even group them in more want to transform your notes
firstly to download it to the same advanced ways. into a website.
folder as your vault. One good way to better If, however, you’re happy
Then, when inside a note, just organise your notes is by using putting time into learning
type ![[ to open a small menu and tags. Tagging a note is just a Markdown and with taking notes
select your image. Click to embed matter of writing # anywhere on one device, Obsidian is very
the image in your note. followed by your tag – for powerful and easy to navigate.

97
 HOW-TO

PI

Design and build a Pi robot

In his latest series, Les Pounder explains how to plan, design and build your very own
Raspberry Pi robot from the basics up.

YOU’LL At the end of part one, we had

NEED THIS built our robot from a kit and
• Robot kit soldered wires from the motor
• Pi 3B+ or 4 4GB terminals. In this part, we move
• 2x L298D motor on to writing code that will
controllers control the motors and move our
• 12x female- to- robot. As our robot has four
female jumper wires
• USB battery motors, we need to use two motor
for testing controllers. One for the rear
• Code: tinyurl.com/ motors, the other for the front.
APC518ROBOT But which are the best choice for
this project, and how do we
interface the Raspberry Pi to
PART 2/3 them? We will create our own
Don’t miss Python module (a library of
next issue,
prewritten code) to control the
subscribe on
page 21! motors and create a test script to
ensure it all works.
This part can get quite complex
– we are working with four
motors. Take your time, tackle It may look a mess, but this robot is ours. We’re still in the debug phase,
just one motor at once, and so making it look pretty is not a concern yet.
double-check your connections
before moving on. Sure, we want can send the power to alternate tested the stall current for one
to get to the bit where our robot motor pins. This forces the motor motor and noted that it reached
runs around under our to spin in either direction, giving 900mA, which is a definite strike
command, but we need to put us directional control. The most against the L9110S.
some work in before we reach common motor controllers for That leaves us with the
those giddy delights. makers are the L9110S, L298N DRV8833 and L298N.
and DRV8833. But which one do The DRV8833, a chip from Texas
Motor controllers we need? Instruments, has a maximum
We can’t just connect the GPIO of To determine this we need to current, per motor channel, of
the Raspberry Pi to the motors. look at the datasheet for our 1.5A. Two motors running from
The amount of current consumed yellow DC motors. It seems they one unit could pull 1.8A in a
by a motor is many times what have a max current of 800mA. worst case scenario. So for now,
the Pi GPIO can produce. Instead This is the stall current, which is the DRV8833 is a maybe.
we need something that sits the current consumed by the The final motor controller is
between the Pi and the motors: a motor when it is forced to stop – a the L298N, which is a beast of a
motor controller. The controller wire may catch in the axle, or the motor controller. The L298N is
Cable ties are your receives the signal from the robot becomes trapped. Looking the name of the chip itself, but it
new best friend.
They can keep your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO and triggers at the datasheet for the L9110S, is commonly sold as the L298D,
components tight to its output pins to send power to we see that it can handle 800mA, which features a breakout board
the chassis, and the motor. In reality, the motor but only for one motor; two for screw terminals and header
clean up the mess controller is an H bridge, where motors could see 1.6A go through pins. You’ll also notice that the
of wires. changing the state of two pins and destroy the controller. We L298D has a massive heatsink.
Well, it needs it as this chip can
sink 2A per motor channel, over
double the stall current of a
single motor. This makes the
L298D a great choice for this
robot project. We are going to
need two: one for the front
motors, the other for the rear.

Connect the motors

Wiring up the motors to the
controllers is an involved
process, so let’s do it one by one.
We start with the rear motors. To
wire up one motor we need the
two wires from the motor

98
Take your time with this circuit. Check your
connections before applying power. Do not
connect the red 6V power connection from
the motor to the Raspberry Pi!

connected to OUT1 and OUT2 on breadboard are Wago 221. These the GPIO pins that control the
the L298D. It doesn’t matter are t that turn one connection, motor. The objects are given the
much which goes in OUT1/OUT2; for example GND, into many GND cryptic names of rra and rrb.
we’ll test that later. From the connections. We can use a Wago These refer to rear-right motor,
Raspberry Pi, connect GPIO14 to 221 with five connections to and then one of two terminals GENIUS TIP!
the IN1 pin, and GPIO15 to IN2. common the GND of our represented by a and b. Object rra Wire up each motor
These pins control the motor Raspberry Pi and the battery. is the rear-right motor terminal individually. Check
rotation. Now we have one motor Another Wago 221 can be used to a, connected to OUT1 on the the connections
connected to the L298D, and our break out the 5V connection from L298D. This is controlled from match those in the
Pi is also connected. the battery to both L298D motor GPIO14 on the Pi. The value of table (see page 98).
If your motor spins
Connect the second motor to controllers. See the picture above GPIO14 is set to 0 so that the
the wrong way,
OUT3 and OUT4, and GPIO18 and for an example of how we did motor doesn’t automatically swap the
GPIO23 for the IN3 and IN4 pins. this. start. We repeat the process for connecting wires
Connect the power from the rrb, connected to OUT2, IN2 and between the motor
batteries (or USB battery) to the Testing time GPIO15. and the L298D.
12V and GND of the L298D via a Before we can set our robot off on rra = PWMOutputDevice(14,initial_
breadboard that we’ll use to an adventure, we need to ensure value=0)
break out one connection into that we have full control of the rrb = PWMOutputDevice(15,initial_
many. We also need to connect motors. To do that we create a test value=0)
any GND from the Pi to the GND script that checks that each Here is the code for the left-rear
of the motors; use another series motor can spin, and that we have
of breadboard connections for control of the direction and
this. The batteries only power the speed. This test script is based
motors, not the Pi. Four AA upon GPIO Zero, an excellent MOTOR CONTROL BOARDS
batteries is 6V, much more than a Python module from Ben Nuttall We’ve focused on bespoke H bridge motor
Pi can safely use. Right now we and Dave Jones. GPIO Zero controllers as the method to work with motors on
have two L298D motor simplifies working with the GPIO the Raspberry Pi. They are not the only option,
though. There are many other motor boards to
controllers, powered from by abstracting the complexities
choose from and here we highlight two that we
batteries/USB, with their GND into human-readable have personally used. First is Pimoroni’s Explorer
pins connected to the GND of the instructions. HAT Pro, a board that was used in the Raspberry
Pi and the power source. This Begin by powering up to the Pi Foundation’s Picademy teacher training course.
gives us a common ground Raspberry Pi desktop. From the This versatile board has two motor outputs,
reference necessary for the main menu, go to Programming capacitive touch inputs and 5V tolerant inputs. It is
circuit to operate correctly. These and select Thonny. In a new, a great board for newcomers and while it isn’t for
two motors will be the rear-left blank window, save the code as use with big motors, for 6V micro gear metal
and rear-right of the robot. robot-test.py. We start by motors, it is perfect.
The other controller is Cytron’s Maker Drive,
Now for the front motors, and importing two modules. The first
which is a breakout for an MX1508 motor
for this we need another L298D. is GPIO Zero, specifically the controller. This tiny board is made for makers who
This time, connect the front-left PWNOutputDevice class from it. want to get things to move. It has solid screw
motor to OUT1 and OUT2, then This is used for fine control of the terminals, header pins for GPIO connections and,
connect GPIO24 and 25 to IN1 and motor speed by sending pulses of in a truly innovative move, push buttons. The four
IN2 respectively. Connect the current instead of simple on/off. push buttons are used to test that a motor is
front-right motor to OUT3 and The second module is time, and connected and working. Press the button and it
OUT4, and then connect GPIO8 we use the sleep function to sends current along a set path, press another
and 7 to IN3 and IN4, create pauses in the code: button and the H bridge flips and spins the motor
in the opposite direction. We’ve used this board in
respectively. Again connect the from gpiozero import PWMOutputDevice
a few projects, even with a Commodore 64 and a
12V terminal to the batteries via from time import sleep GPIO breakout to write Basic code to make a
the breadboard, and connect Our focus now turns to motor spin.
GND to the breadboard row of creating objects that act as an
GND pins. An alternative to a interface between the code and

99
 HOW-TO

We used a Pimoroni motor, connected to OUT3 and Each function is named after the Next we create a function
Pico HAT Hacker to OUT4 via IN3 and IN4 and GPIO18 direction in which we want to go. called stop() to stop all the
help us remember and 23. The function takes an extra motors dead. No gentle
the GPIO reference lra = PWMOutputDevice(18,initial_ parameter, an argument, which deceleration – this is an
for each pin.
value=0) #left rear motor terminal a is the speed at which we wish the emergency stop. It takes no
lrb = PWMOutputDevice(23,initial_ motors to move, using a value argument.
value=0) #left rear motor terminal b between 0 and 1. def stop():
Here is the code for the two We start by moving forward rra.value = 0
front motors. using the forward() function. To rrb.value = 0
fra = PWMOutputDevice(24,initial_ move forward we need to spin the lra.value = 0
value=0) #front right motor terminal a motors in the same direction. We lrb.value = 0
frb = PWMOutputDevice(25,initial_ set motor terminal a of each fla.value = 0
value=0) #front right motor terminal b motor to run at the speed value flb.value = 0
fla = PWMOutputDevice(8,initial_ we pass to the function. Motor fra.value = 0
value=0) #front left motor terminal a terminal b is set to 0 so the H frb.value = 0
flb = PWMOutputDevice(7,initial_ bridge in the L298D knows which print(“ALL STOP”)
GENIUS TIP! value=0) front left motor terminal b direction the current flows. Next we make a new line and
If you can’t get any Save the code before moving def forward(speed): write a few lines that call the
L298D motor on. rra.value = speed functions to test that everything
controllers, a For quick reference, below is a rrb.value = 0 is working. We set forward to full
DRV8833 will do
table of connections between the lra.value = speed speed, 1.0, but this can be any
the job. The
DRV8833 can cope motors, L298Ds and Raspberry Pi lrb.value = 0 value above 0.5 for the test. Any
with 1.5A of current GPIO. fla.value = speed values lower may cause the
per motor channel, To control the motors, we flb.value = 0 motor to stall, but later we can
but it is a little create functions for forward, fra.value = speed drop our speed down to lower
harder to work with. backward and spinning motion. frb.value = 0 than 0.5 while the motor is
moving.
forward(1.0)
Object name Motor pin Motor input Pi GPIO
sleep(10)
rra OUT1 IN1 14 stop()
Save the code and ensure the
rrb OUT2 IN2 15 motor power supply is powered
lra OUT3 IN3 18 on and that the red LEDs on the
L298D are lit. Lift the robot
lrb OUT4 IN4 23 chassis up and ensure the wheels
fra OUT1 (2nd L298D) IN1 (2nd L298D) 24 are clear of any objects and
fingers. In Thonny, click Run and
frb OUT2 (2nd L298D) IN2 (2nd L298D) 25 the motors spin. Check that each
fla OUT3 (2nd L298D) IN3 (2nd L298D) 8 motor is spinning in the correct
direction. If not, make a note and
flb OUT4 (2nd L298D) IN4 (2nd L298D) 7 when the code stops, swap the

100
motor terminal connection
to the L298D for that motor and
then try again.

Add more directions

With the successful test done, we
add functions for backward, spin
left and spin right. Place these
below the forward() function, but
above the test lines.
Backward
def backward(speed):
rra.value = 0
rrb.value = speed
lra.value = 0
lrb.value = speed
fla.value = 0
flb.value = speed A Wago 221 have completed the test and have robot.spin_right(1.0)
fra.value = 0 connector can turn a basic user-controllable robot. If sleep(5)
frb.value = speed one connection into not, swap the motor terminal robot.stop()
Spin left many. We used it to connections between the motor Lift up the robot and click on
make a common
def spin_left(speed): and the L298D, and retest. In the Run. The robot should move in the
ground reference
rra.value = speed and break out the download for this project is a same pattern as our previous test
rrb.value = 0 5V power. quick reference table (Motor- script.
lra.value = 0 Direction) of the values for each To run the code remotely we
lrb.value = speed motor terminal. need to start an SSH server. From
fla.value = 0 the main Raspberry Pi OS menu, go
flb.value = speed Create a Python module to Preferences > Raspberry Pi
fra.value = speed With a successful test under our Configuration. In the new window
frb.value = 0 belt we now move on to create a go to Interfaces and enable SSH.
Spin right Python module that controls the Hovering the mouse over the
def spin_right(speed): robot. This is the easy bit. Copy network icon in the top-right
rra.value = 0 all the lines from the imports and shows your IP address. On another
rrb.value = speed functions (we don’t need the test computer, open a terminal window
lra.value = speed lines), and paste them in a new and use SSH to remotely connect to
lrb.value = 0 Thonny window. Save it as robot. the Pi. You can use your IP address
fla.value = speed py. or hostname to connect. Typically
flb.value = 0 Open a new Thonny window the hostname is raspberrypi.local
fra.value = 0 and use import the robot module and the username is pi. So we
frb.value = speed and the sleep function from time: would use SSH as follows.
Now we can modify the test import robot ssh [email protected]
lines to use each function for five from time import sleep or
seconds: Add a few test lines that call ssh pi@YOUR-IP-ADDRESS
forward(1.0) GENIUS TIP! the functions from the module Run test.py using Python (pick
sleep(5) Writing a test script and use them to control the up the robot):
backward(1.0) is essential. We robot. We preface commands python3 test.py
sleep(5) need to make sure with robot to tell Python which
spin_left(1.0) that we have full module to use. Save as test.py in And relax…
sleep(5) control of the the same directory as robot.py. We now have a robot that we can
motors before we
spin_right(1.0) robot.forward(1.0) code using a custom Python
unleash the robot.
sleep(5) Getting the basics sleep(5) module. Next time we’ll interface
stop() correct will yield robot.backward(1.0) sensors into the robot to give it a
Save the code, pick up the robot better results for sleep(5) level of intelligence that will see it
and click Run to test. Does every future parts of this robot.spin_left(1.0) navigate a room without outside
motor move correctly? If so you series. sleep(5) help.

RASPBERRY PI ALTERNATIVES
The Raspberry Pi is not the only brains give the robot intelligence to identify intentions. Another option is Khadas’s
for a robot. It just depends on what level objects and obstacles, and react range of boards. The VIM4 is a beast of a
of intelligence you need in your bot. At accordingly. The Pi is the sweet spot for board, with 8GB RAM and an octa-core
the most basic level, we can use a $5 computational power and price, but if Arm CPU. It runs Ubuntu 22.04 and is
microcontroller, such as an ATtiny85, to money is no object, Nvidia’s Jetson range priced just over the currently high prices
build a $20 Arduino robot: https://bigl. of boards has superior AI and computer of the Pi 4. The Khadas Edge 2 Pro
es/friday-fun-attiny85-10-robot- vision capabilities. The Nvidia Jetson has comes with up to 16GB RAM and a SoC
challenge. If we want to use MicroPython additional cores devoted to machine that features additional computing power
or CircuitPython, we can build a robot learning, and with a webcam, we can for machine learning. Sure, we pay more,
based around the Pi Pico or Pico W. We train our robot to detect faces and but we get much more power for robotics
can even use a TensorFlow Lite model to objects, hopefully with altruistic in a tiny form factor.

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DOWNTIME

GAMES

Dead Space
This remake is a promising portent for the series’ future.
$89.95 | PC, PS5, XBS/X | ea.com/games/dead-space

Dead Space was never a series about was already there, rather than trying to Another change is the inclusion of new
exploring the wonders of the universe or make something brand-new. no-gravity puzzles, and there’s nothing
of space as a wild frontier where the worst Dead Space manages more in ten hours quite like sitting back and floating as you
evil we can imagine is corporate greed than most games do in thirty, and that try to figure out some complex space
dominating the stars. No, this is a game narrative has been further focused in the engineering problem. I found these
about how space is downright scary; an remake. Isaac actually talks now and this sequences to be a nice respite from
abyss into which we gaze and see our helps make him feel like an active fighting Necromorphs, letting you think
nightmares reflected right back. If there’s participant in the story. about something other
one thing I’m glad this remake didn’t
change, it’s the Necromorph jumping-out-
There was a lot of talk
about the new horrendous-
"Dead Space than alien amputation for a
little while, and they’re a
of-vent scream that almost sounds as if sounding Necromorph manages more strong addition to the
they’re as surprised as you are. It’s good to
be back on the Ishimura, even if this is a
Peeling system in advance
of the remake, but besides
in ten hours remake.
It took me around 12
remake instead of a fourth game. being a strong visual than most games hours to complete
This remake feels like a brand-new
Dead Space. Sure, it’s got the same bleak
indicator of weakened
limbs and what to chop,
do in thirty" everything on medium
difficulty, but the remake
atmosphere, overarching narrative and blowing more bits off also features new game
the same ol’ Necromorphs, but it could be Necromorphs is definitely a good time. plus with harder enemies and 12 hidden
the foundation for Dead Space moving My favourite thing has been blasting marker fragments that unlock an
forward; proof that this survival horror them point blank with the Force Gun and alternate ending if found. So even though
formula is as strong now as it was when watching as an all-but-fleshless skeleton it’s a little on the shorter side, this is what
the original launched in 2008. And I stands up like a chicken carcass put Dead Space has always been: an intense,
think a big part of this remake’s strength through one of those industrial blow momentum-driven experience. Most of
is down to the fact that it builds on what dryers. all, I’m just happy Dead Space is back and
Dead Space is good.

The Dead Space remake is a triumphant return

for the beloved survival horror series.
Hopefully more will follow.
Sean Martin
-------

102
 THE TELWYNIUM: BOOK TWO
Another memorable
Powerhoof game.
Free | PC, Mac, Linux
powerhoof.itch.io/the-telwynium-book-two

I won’t beat around the bush. Telwynium

is at once a faithful love letter to The
Wheel of Time, and a masterful
subversion of it, recreating familiar
story beats and characters, and then
having shocking things happen to
them.
Visually at least, Telwynium is
modelled after the old Sierra games of
the early ’90s, with EGA-style pixel art
that matches Sierra for character and
atmosphere, and adds more detail.
These are beautiful environments to
explore as Pendar, with Book Two in
particular making up for its compact
world with some rather beautiful vistas.
But while it looks like a Sierra game, it
doesn’t play much like one, ejecting
their fiddly interfaces for a modern,
streamlined approach. You have an
inventory, and a small selection of
verbs: walk, look at and interact. That’s
ROLLER DRAMA enough to forge some clever puzzles
around, and they’re a little better here
A narrative game with a few bruises. in Book Two, with the NPCs more ready
$21.95 | PC, PS5,/4, XB1, Switch | open-lab.com/games/rollerdrama to help you, instead of finding flimsy
reasons for Pendar to handle everything
When it’s not getting tackled by its own Unfortunately the game’s puzzles are himself.
UI shortcomings, Roller Drama skates on sometimes inscrutable. Almost every A small adventure that packs in a lot. It feels
its characters, art style, and the near time a new quest was given for me to like the middle part of an epic fantasy trilogy.
unbearable responsibility of being a solve, I was immediately lost, failing to Tom Sykes
team coach. You take on the role of Joan grasp the specific order of actions that -------
‘Jeanne D’Arc’ Galliano, a coach for a had to be taken for things to be resolved.
women’s roller derby Roller Drama is nice
team. The game is "It seems simple at a to look at while you
split between the struggle, at least. The
hijinks of keeping glance but timing and character designs are
your team, plus their tactics really are fun but it’s the big
personal lives, in cross section of their
order and winning difficult to get right, house that I
matches. It’s part plus you have to manage especially love,
management game, watching all the
part visual novel, your team’s energy characters battle for
though if there are levels so they don’t get use of the elevator.
branching paths in Despite the charming
the story it was hard exhausted before the visuals, the UI is
for me to notice. match is over." often unreadable, if
Matches not outright broken.
themselves are where Issues like this are
you get to flex your head for strategy. a shame, because when Roller Drama got
You watch the game play out in real time out of its own way I became really
from above, giving direct inputs to your invested in looking after my little team
jammer while giving instructions to the of lovable misfits. Like them, Roller
rest of your team, who have to balance Drama has a lot of flaws, but its heart and
breaking up the enemy defence, raw enthusiasm shines through.
protecting their own jammer and
slowing down the enemy team’s jammer. Roller Drama from Open Lab Games is
It seems simple at a glance but timing charming, but undermined by technical issues
and tactics really are difficult to get and obtuse puzzles.
right, plus you have to manage your Samantha Greer
team’s energy levels so they don’t get -------
exhausted before the match is over.

103
DOWNTIME

HUE FLOWING
A platformer dripping with style.
Free | PC | dafluffypotato.itch.io/hue-flowing

Filling in a map is one of the best

things in games. The best and the
worst, as you may find your
perfectionist tendencies taking over.
Surprisingly, that didn’t happen for
me in Hue Flowing, probably because
it’s only 15 minutes long.
The entire level is swaddled in a
thick fog of war, and you can only
clear it by jumping around. The arc of
your jump removes the foggy top
layer of the canvas, revealing a world
of pretty floating islands below.
It is odd to jump in a platformer
and not know if you’re going to land
safely on a platform, or tumble into
the void. However, for the most part COLOSSAL CAVE
death is no bother, simply taking you An education in ’70s adventure game design.
back to the last platform you were on. $58.50 | PC, PS5, XBS/X, Switch | colossalcave3d.com
Your first few minutes are a frenzy of
leaping and drawing, as you
gradually fill in the map. Colossal Cave is a new version of earth to hurl a knife in your direction.
The most satisfying thing about Colossal Cave Adventure, a text They usually miss, but an RNG-
Hue Flowing is a visual effect that I adventure from the late 1970s. While determined hit will kill you instantly,
suspect impacts the performance. not the first attempt at a graphical sending you back to the well house.
Your leaping brush-strokes trickle reimagining of its namesake, it is the Worse, resurrection has a cost,
down the screen, as if they’re first to render the cave in full 3D, with pulling directly from your point total
dripping water. It feels like you’re WASD and mouse controls, leaving – making a perfect score a frustrating
painting with watercolours. nothing to the imagination ambition to reach for.
whatsoever. Then there are Colossal Cave’s
The prose lives on as narration, mazes, so notorious at the time that
An enjoyable micro-platformer where you go which is thoughtfully implemented as one repeated description, “You are in
from chump to God. a ‘look’ interaction attached to your a maze of twisty little passages, all
Tom Sykes cursor – always available to flesh out a alike,” has resonated across the years,
------- scene or describe an object, but rarely becoming a byword in hacker culture
forced upon you. And its presence for a situation in which no possible
allows you to appreciate just how action affects the outcome. Escape is
faithful a rendition this is. possible, with patience, but torment is
This game was in many ways a inevitable. A fact which makes you
blueprint for the point-and-click wonder whether parts of Colossal Cave
adventure genre as we still know it might have been better left buried
today, asking you to scour the deep beneath the rock. Both from a
environment for objects to place in design and aesthetic perspective,
your inventory, and then to find there are far fairer caverns to delve
places where those objects might be into these days.
applied to allow you further progress.
Ultimately, your goal is to find
treasure that will contribute to your
point total.
Considering its age, Colossal Cave’s Colossal Cave is certainly One for nostalgists
puzzle logic is surprisingly robust. and those who just love getting lost on
But surrounding these puzzles are spelunking holidays.
elements that have weathered the Jeremy Peel
decades less well. Take the dwarves, -------
who intermittently spring out of the

104
AQUATICO
Create and manage an undersea metropolis.
$35.95 | PC | overseer-games.com/aquatico

This is Aquatico, where you’re centre while all sorts of sea life glides
building a city on the ocean floor over and through the city, from clouds
after an asteroid strike has rendered of giant jellyfish to massive sperm
the surface world uninhabitable. whales.
Instead of roads, you’ll build Another bright point is an
pipelines, instead of city buses you’ll expedition system a bit similar to
have submarines, and instead of Frostpunk’s. After building a special
tornadoes you’ll have hub, I can stock a
to worry about shark
attacks.
"I found it a mostly submarine with human
explorers and supplies
Despite Aquatico’s relaxing and send it offscreen to
unusual setting, your
city will grow and
experience to build investigate SOS
signals, abandoned
prosper based on many in the bubbly blue colonies, or new
of the same elements
found in city builders
depths, but it’s sources of food and
resources.
that take place on the livened up by The resource
surface. Mining for oil
and stone, fabricating
moments of alarm of Aquatico aresystems
management
pretty
plastic and glass, and panic when I deep, and there are a
farming for
sustenance, and using
didn’t plan ahead." lot of charming details
and some inventive
turbines and solar ideas in the undersea
collectors for power. Resource builder. But like the water it’s
management is the real star of submerged in, my city wound up
Aquatico, and there’s loads of it to feeling cold. It’s a nice place to visit,
manage. Swift expansion needs to be but I wouldn’t really want to live BATTLE OF WINDOWS
tempered with the infrastructure to there. Imagines a civil war on your desktop.
support it: build too quickly and red Free | Browser | bit.ly/BattleOfWindows
exclamation points will appear
around the city signifying a deficit of The resource management is deep and Battle of Windows repurposes an old
fuel or oxygen. I found it a mostly satisfying, but the city itself never quite feels version of Windows. However, the
relaxing experience to build in the like a city. titular windows are given unlikely
bubbly blue depths, but it’s livened up Christopher Livingston utility. The windows of Windows have
by moments of alarm and panic when ------- had a bit of a falling out, going to war in
I didn’t plan ahead. an aerial battle on your desktop. Enemy
The growing city can also be highly windows fly towards you from the right
enjoyable to just sit back and watch of the screen – as in a typical horizontal
for a bit. Human workers clomp across shmup – and, playing as a wizard, you
the seabed in mech-like diving suits, have to fend them off by summoning
aquatic drones speed through the windows of your own.
water, grow and harvest crops, and The cheapest window you can
carry supplies in their little summon contains a clipart of a
mechanical claws. Automated spaceship, which will automatically fire
submarines move resources between Minesweeper mines at the enemy. You
depots, warehouses, and the city can summon multiple ships, and
position them wherever you want by
dragging them around.
Walls physically restrain enemy
windows, stopping them from reaching
your wizard and reducing their health.
Eventually, stronger enemies appear.
So, you summon more walls, and more
ships, and you chuck in a few of the
playing cards as well, which will attack
enemy windows at close-range. Soon
the screen is full of windows, which
you’re furiously squishing and dragging
around.

This is a great idea, taking the Windows we all

know so well and finding a fun new use for it.
Tom Sykes
-------

105
DOWNTIME

GAME CHANGER

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Coming to terms with not liking CDPR’s breakout RPG. By Ted Litchfield
Release: May 17, 2010 Developer: CD Projekt Red Publisher: CD Projekt Link: thewitcher.com

CD Projekt Red recently acts! Amidst the rise of tablets, untenable midpoint between the
unleashed The Witcher 3: Next the ascendancy of the Xbox 360, charming rough edges of The
Gen, a big ole 4.0 update with new and a premature declaration of Witcher and the flawless
items, quests, graphical “the death of the PC,” The Witcher excellence of Wild Hunt. Assassins
enhancements, a revamped 2 said, “PC gaming ain’t going of Kings is mechanically complex
camera, and ray traced lighting anywhere, baby.” But I’ve got a without being particularly deep,
that nobody’s GPU can handle. It horrible, terrible, unspeakable and it’s guilty of the sort of overly
was, of course, time for a replay, secret: I just don’t like this one edgy “this isn’t your old man’s
and I’m obsessive and neurotic very much. RPG” writing critics usually ding
about these enormous RPGs The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is Cyberpunk 2077 for. But I opened
where choices carry from game easily one of my favourite games. my heart to the possibilities: I’d
to game, so replaying The Witcher It’s one they hand you with your go for that alternate second act
3 means replaying The Witcher PC gamer card alongside Half-Life I’d never seen before and maybe
saga. I tore through The Witcher and Doom for a reason. The try a different build, all in the
making the same choices I always Witcher, meanwhile, is a hopes of discovering the game
do (what kind of hall monitor wonderful, ambitious, Eurojank everyone found to be such a
sides with the Order of the throwback. A charismatic relic triumph over the first one.
Flaming Rose anyway?) and that, despite a notoriously
arrived at The Witcher 2: Assassins botched English translation, still Second chance
of Kings. has that wonderful pagan rites Neither saved it for me. At the
This is the game that put CD meet the Brothers Grimm vibe end of The Witcher 2’s first act, the
Projekt on the map, a graphical I’ve come to demand from the fate of awful backwater Flotsam
powerhouse that laid rigs low Witcher-verse. hangs in the balance! Do you side
with übersampling. It’s a I’ve always found The Witcher 2 with elven terrorist beloved
memetic icon of RPG choice with to be an awkward sophomore freedom fighter Iorveth in order
two completely different second outing by comparison, an to go after the kingslayer, or do

106
 I never pass on a solid
fantasy vista.

Lerft: The Witcher 2 This is what we were

did initiate the fighting for. Geralt’s
series’ excellent tattoo, preserved in The
portrayal of trolls as Witcher 3.
slow but lovable
dullards.
Above: Henselt’s
soldiers are all
stinky and weird.

you pick medieval cop Vernon right, after all. Still, there’s a manoeuvring in Iorveth’s
Roche so you can go after the whole chunk of this game I’d besieged dwarf town of Vergen
kingslayer, but over here never seen before, so I gritted my is, it absolutely beats palling
instead? I’m a creature of habit, if teeth and aided grumpy swordy around with a gaggle of real
my repeated replaying of this spec ops dad Roche instead. I assholes in King Henselt’s
150-hour series wasn’t indication thought, “What if the game miserable grey mud pit. The
enough, and I get really invested everybody else thinks is so good charm of The Witcher, for me,
in my role playing, so when I is hidden away in Roche’s is how much this awful world
come back to a moral choice I Kaedweni camp adventure?” can prove a glass half-full. This
made the first time, I usually To my great relief, it was not. mutated killer we follow
stick with my guns! Iorveth is As confounding as the political around is a warm hearted
romantic with a wry sense of
humour, and not all monsters
VENDOR TRASH need to be killed. Things can be
Why do I have all this crap? grim and not always work out,
but that levity provides a
necessary contrast.
In Henselt’s camp, there’s
really no such silver lining or
pleasant surprise anywhere.
The king himself is a petulant
ROBUST CLOTH HARDENED STUDDED LEATHER TIMBER rapist and warmonger, and it
There’s regular cloth in LEATHER Oh, and Hardened Alright, am I playing The
The Witcher 2, but that You’re going to need a Leather can actually be Witcher or is this Age of sticks in my craw that Assassins
won’t do. It must first ton of Hardened crafted into Studded Empires all of a of Kings presents a choice of
be transmuted into the Leather to craft Leather. You’ll need sudden? Am I crafting killing him or not as some kind
venerable Robust high-quality weapons. lots of Studded and silver swords, or a got a of weighty conundrum. His
Cloth, a key ingredient Vendors have a limited Hardened Leather to danged town centre to advisor, Deathmold, is a creepy
in the various jerkins, amount, so you’ll have outfit your six slots. I challenge the Ottoman torturer, and while Roche can
breeches, boots, and to go on a little quest needed a paper and Turks? Indicative of a be a real winner, I find most of
mittens you’ll be getting regular leather pen to calculate how deep identity crisis in his best moments are in The
chasing for incremental you can craft into much detritus I had to The Witcher 2: Witcher 3. As for the camp’s
armour upgrades. Hardened Leather. accumulate. Assassins of Kings.
second order inhabitants, it’s a
total bust. Vergen has all kinds

107
DOWNTIME

The Kaedweni Camp

does offer up a few
nice views.

Above: The
armwrestling
minigame is fun,
but it’s no Gwent.
Right: There’s just
no beating the
dwarf town of
Vergen, the
highlight of the
game for me.

of colourful and eccentric this playthrough, I discovered a and got that punk Stennis
dwarves, elves, and mages heartbreaking little forum post absolutely ganked by a peasant
handing out quests and outlining an ‘optimal’ world state mob, but all this capital-c Choice
populating its drama. The to enter The Witcher 3 with – what and Consequence barely registers
Kaedweni troops, by contrast, are fate should you ordain for even a passing mention in Wild
a bunch of bores and boors. “Oi Vergen, Henselt, the Termerian Hunt. I don’t even resent The
Witchorrrr, ye git any poughin’ in royal bastards, or the conclave? Witcher 3 for it – with the third
afore the big battle? Gonna cut me What will leave the North with game, CDPR cut the gordian knot,
some elf ears tomorrow I the strongest chance against said, “I ain’t reading all that,” and
reckon…” It all wore thin for me Nilfgaard? was stronger for it.
very quickly. It doesn’t matter at all really. I I lay the blame at the Witcher 2’s
I’d seen enough: I hit the eject saved Vergen, released Saskia, feet for cooking up a headache-
button, rewinding all the way to inducing spaghetti tangle of
when you choose your allegiance bastards, territorial claims,
between Roche and Iorveth. HAPPY HOUR allegiances and betrayals.
Though I’d seen it all before, My preferred Witcher brews The Witcher 2’s dozens of end
Vergen is probably the highlight states and moral choices just feel
of the game for me – it’s got the flaccid and pointless compared to
most of that Witcher colour that I the sweep of the whole series –
find otherwise absent from who cares if Flotsam is Temerian
Assassins of Kings. Sorry Roche, or Kaedweni if neither of those
but I guess I’ll just see you in the ROOK GADWALL THUNDERBOLT countries even exist come The
next game. Besides, this is my one Safe, reliable, boring. Another eye-catching Glass cannon mode, DPS Witcher 3? Why on earth would I
chance to hang out with Iorveth Rook provides a flat name, this one time. Thunderbolt halves prioritise founding the Conclave
– my revolutionary fellow damage bonus with no referencing a species your max hp and regen in Loc Muinne if the Witch
traveller was MIA in 2015. downsides. Really I’m of “dabbling” duck. but ratchets up the Hunters always start their
just interested in its Gadwall cranks down damage you deal. With persecutions in The Witcher 3
This doesn’t matter name: this potion your damage output in feats that reduce the anyway?
No matter what you do and who doesn’t show up in the favour of tuning up negative effects of Wild Hunt does track your most
other games, and I your hit points and potions, it synergizes
you run with in The Witcher 2, the always associated it health regen. Fairly with Gadwall to boost important choice in The Witcher 2
board’s set pretty much the same with chess before useful in a game where you across the board. at least: You can keep that goofy
way come The Witcher 3: Wild finding out it’s actually everything kills you in Shame potions are such little tattoo Geralt gets in a
Hunt. While trawling for a species of bird. three hits. a pain to use. Hangover-inspired sidequest in
character guides and the like for act 1.

108
The King of Kaedwen is a
jerk, a loser, and you
should probably kill him.

Needless complexity inundated with a constant four times, and back in the day
without depth stream of cloth bolts, leather just brutalised my mid-tier
My other big experiment, an scraps and iron nails, but it still Radeon HD 6790. I got a certain
alchemy-focused build, was a always feels like I never have catharsis from pushing 80fps
similar bust. Potions are on an enough materials to quickly and with the setting on, but very
unforgiving timer that does not easily craft The Witcher 2’s best quickly switched it off to get an
pause for cutscenes, and Geralt gear. It’s an unwieldy, frustrating even more buttery smooth 140.
has to pop a squat and load system that makes my jaw clench The Witcher 2 established CDPR’s
between two menus to even just thinking about it, but tech legend: the studio that three
drink them, let alone brew a downloading another mod to years before was making a wonky
batch up. At its best, alchemy is streamline it all underlined how game for nerds on the Neverwinter
one of the series’ best flourishes. much these layers of vendor trash Nights Aurora engine was now all
Potion imbibing contributes to and crafting screens obfuscate a of a sudden running with the big
this sense of Geralt’s profession: simple, stultifying system of dogs and producing some of the
he isn’t a fighter, mage, or thief, “numbers go up.” best visuals in gaming. I will
he’s a witcher, and has to fight always admire The Witcher 2’s
accordingly. Finding fun ambition, from its visual
Even with a mod to boost It isn’t all bad – this game is still advances to its mutually
potion durations, I was feeling absolutely gorgeous, no two ways exclusive second acts.
the squeeze. My breaking point about it. Released all the way I appreciate The Witcher 2 as an
came with the prolonged ghost back in 2010, The Assassins of evolutionary step in a series I
battlefield sequence at the end of Kings looks like it belongs to the love, and I’ll never turn down
act 2. Your prepped potions PS4 generation. The real star, by more Geralt, but I’m finally at
immediately get cancelled, and my estimation, is CDPR’s peace with being a Witcher 2
you have to play as these sluggish modelling work, and even hater. After beating it two and a
wraith soldiers who can’t pull off Geralt’s garbage tier early game half times over 13 years, I’m
Geralt’s dodge roll, but do, leather jerkins outshine comfortable rating it pretty low, a
confoundedly, benefit from his endgame armour sets from other merely OK RPG in between two
combat skill tree investments RPGs in design and detail. favourites. I’m really glad to
like its active counter. I grabbed I turned on the infamous finally play The Witcher 3 with
another mod to respec, and just übersampling setting for laughs that tattoo though – I crack a little
facerolled the rest of the game. – this ambitious form of smile whenever I notice that
I was similarly fatigued by the supersampling effectively strange little topless lady on
item system here – you’re renders every frame of gameplay Geralt’s neck.

109
DOWNTIME

The impact of
RETRO

The 7th Guest

When Trilobyte launched the interactive movie horror adventure The 7th Guest 30 years ago, it had a major
impact not just on PC gaming but PC hardware, too. David Crookes solves the puzzle of its success.

By the early 1990s, gamers had Devine had plenty of work – “you Above: Graeme the US in 1988 to assist in the
Devine has had a
become used to swapping floppy could rewrite the BIOS really easily lifelong love of
opening of a new office for
disks. Not just in the sense that and fool it into thinking a floppy horror. Mastertronic. “The PC was coming
they were passing them to their disk was twice as big as it actually into its own after the Commodore
friends in the school playground was” – it nevertheless added to 64, Atari ST and Amiga,” he told
or in offices up and down the land: development time and still led to APC. “I was keen to experiment
we’re talking about the umpteen the need for multiple disks. Yet the and see what the PC could do for
disks that were often needed for games industry, despite having games.”
people to play the increasingly long made use of cartridges, For much of the 1980s and early
complex titles that were being appeared happy to persevere with 1990s, adventure games had
released. floppies and, in doing so, wasn’t reigned supreme on the platform.
“Looking back, it was pretty seeing the potential of another “Sierra On-Line games were
crazy,” said videogame developer rather more shiny medium. probably the most popular,”
Graeme Devine, who began his Devine said. “The developer made
career in 1982 porting Pole Position Meteoric rise King’s Quest, Space Quest and Police
for Atari, aged just 16. “We all It was the early 1990s and Quest as well as Ultima: Escape from
seemed very willing to slot 20 Devine’s career had continued to Mt. Drash.” But other genres were
floppy disks into our computers to soar. He’d created Metropolis in making an impact, too.
install and play a game, although 1987 (a game he’s currently in the “The Links golf games were a
I’d got really good at compressing midst of remaking) as well as big hit and then you had Doom,
PC titles so that they’d fit onto Turbo Champions and Spot, among which was only really playable on
fewer disks. More disks meant a clutch of other games for a host the PC,” Devine added. “No-one
increased costs, after all.” of 8-bit and 16-bit computers. other than Doom’s creator John
Although this skill ensured He’d also moved from the UK to Carmack could work out how to do

110
binary space partitions. The PC owned Melbourne House, which
was definitely becoming exciting had the rights to Clue, and we
as a gaming platform.” both liked board games and
thought we could do a better
Give us a clue version than what had been made
By this time, there had also been before.
other developments, most “At the time, the Twin Peaks
notably the release of adventure television show was airing and we
game The Manhole on CD-ROM in absolutely loved it. Our initial
1989 for the Apple Macintosh, as pitch was, you know, Clue but like
well as the launch of the Philips Twin Peaks and that would have
CD-i in 1990. With hindsight, it been great, looking back on it. But
would seem obvious that Rob loved playing The Fool’s Errand
compact discs would replace and it took us in a slightly different
floppies as the storage of choice direction.” The Fool’s Errand,
for games but, by 1992, this still released in 1987 for the Mac,
hadn’t happened. combined visual, brain-twisting
The situation surprised Devine, puzzles with storytelling, and it
and he shared his frustration with quickly became a cult classic.
Rob Landeros, who also worked for “Our game evolved into a story
Mastertronic about a haunted
(which was, by house that was
now, Virgin “Our initial pitch was, full of puzzles to
Mastertronic). you know, Clue but solve,” Devine would make in-house
The pair struck said. “We development difficult. But he told
up a strong like Twin Peaks and originally called the keen developers that the
friendship and that would have it Guest and went company would publish the game.
they maintained to the co-founder It led to the creation of Trilobyte
a keen eye on been great, looking of Virgin and a game that would have a huge
emerging back on it.” Mastertronic, impact not just on PC games, but
technologies. Martin Alper, to on PC hardware as well.
“We were both get the go-ahead,
very bullish about the Philips but we had to promise that we’d A shiny start
CD-i,” Devine said. “We thought it make a  floppy disk version “We had watched The Shining
was going to be huge.” because he said there was no way over and over and over,” said
To discover more about Philips’ the publisher would make money Devine, of the 1980 psychological
digital optical disc data storage on a CD-ROM version.” horror starring Jack Nicholson
format and the accompanying Even so, Alper wanted to see the that went on to inspire their
CD-i players, Devine and Landeros game on CD-ROM. He’d looked at game – the newly named The 7th
attended a conference in New the proposals for the game, saw Guest. “When The Shining
York. “I don’t know how much of the potential and understood how finished, we started watching it
this story is true any more because CD-ROM would be beneficial. But again. In fact, we watched that
I tell it so many times and I think if the pair wanted to go ahead and movie so many times that it
it’s different each time,” he create it, there was a catch: Devine couldn’t fail to influence us – we
laughed, “but we went to the and Landeros would need to leave had it on laser disc and wore it
multimedia conference for the Virgin Mastertronic and do it out.”
launch of the Philips CD-i yet all under their own steam as an Gradually, a story emerged
the titles we saw were dictionaries independent developer. based around a haunted house In this puzzle, all six
and encyclopaedias. According to Alper, office that also had elements of Scooby- guests need to be
“We were sitting there thinking politics and the need to create a Doo – a cartoon that Devine given an equal slice
about this huge storage format new division within the company continues to love even today. The of cake.
that would store a bunch of images
and yet no-one was talking about
the advantages it would have for
games. I recall one talk about a
patented word search that could
scour a dictionary really fast on
CD-ROM and thought it was just
wrong. They were addressing a
temporary, two-year problem and
that wasn’t, in my mind, what
CD-ROM was all about. So Rob and
I came up with a plan.”

Give us a Clue
For a good while, the pair had
been pushing Virgin
Mastertronic to allow them to
remake Cluedo (or Clue, as it’s
known Stateside). “Mastertronic

111
 local children, caused them to die of
a mysterious illness.
With six guests invited by Stauf to
spend the night at the mansion, the
idea was to open up more and more
areas until the identity of a seventh
guest was uncovered. It was creepy
and disturbing, leaving players on
edge. “There are points where I look
back and I’m like, ‘wow, that’s pretty
horrific’,” Devine said. “It’s not as
Scooby-Doo as I fondly remember!”
Even so, it was a masterpiece –
especially when you factor in when
it was made, though Devine sees it
more modestly. “We somehow
blundered our way through,
capturing everything on Super VHS
and, at times, it was like scaling a
cliff without knowing the pickaxe. It
was an adventure in itself and there
was no internet or BBS that we were
on. There was no communication
pair drafted in horror writer directors. All we did was show up Graeme Devine with anyone.”
Matthew J Costello to write the with our Super VHS camera and a battling zombies It led to some flaws that,
script, and they decided to make blue screen I’d bought from the with his daughter. nevertheless, have become part and
full use of the CD-ROM’s capacity hardware store Lowe’s and say, do They’re not trying parcel of the game’s experience. “All
by opting for live action, with real it all on this stage. Debra was, like, very hard though, the ghosts have a haze around them,
actors alongside pre-rendered and deserve to have
okay and got on with it. It’s a but that’s because we couldn’t get
their brains
3D graphics. terrible shame she passed away in devoured. the blue screen out completely,”
“It was 2006.” Devine added. “They’re all more
actually easy to What translucent than we intended them
do but that’s “We had to promise emerged was a to be because the Super VHS was so
only because of we’d make a floppy spooky tale in jagged, we had to bring it down to 15
Debra Ritz which gamers frames a second to get rid of the
Mason, who disk version because moved through interlace. Although we didn’t even
played Martine there was no way the a deserted know what interlace was!”
Burden,” Devine mansion from a
said. “We had a publisher would make first-person Making a splash
two-day film money on a CD-ROM perspective, In order to get paid, the Trilobyte
shoot above a solving puzzles team needed to meet certain
comic bookstore version” while milestones along the way.
in Medford, encountering Eventually, they were able to show
Oregon, and, because Debra owned various characters. As they did so, something of note and so they
the Rogue River Motion Picture they would learn more about one The 7th Guest headed to Las Vegas where they
Company she was able to organise evening in 1935 when a drifter starred a host of knew Virgin Mastertronic and
the whole thing. called Henry Stauf had killed a real-life actors, all Alper were displaying the
“She was the perfect actress and woman then gone on to create with their own publisher’s latest games at the
she got all the costumes, all the toys, which after being sold to personalities. Consumer Electronics Show.
“We needed to get our milestone
money because we were poor,”
Devine explained. “We were
basically eating ramen noodles to
make the game and it certainly
wasn’t being done on a high budget.
When we arrived in Vegas, I showed
Martin what we’d done in a private
meeting room and he was blown
away. He’s like, ‘we’ve got to put this
on to the floor’, and we were like,
‘but it’s not ready for the floor’. He
did it anyway.”
It didn’t take long to make an
impact. “The booth became packed
and crowded just to look at this one
game – our game,” Devine
continued. “Then Roberta Williams
from Sierra On-Line came along and
we got Game of the Show. I think
that really opened Martin’s eyes

112
and, from that point on, we got Above: The cans
more attention from Virgin. We have to be
could also go and get a larger hard rearranged to
drive! form a sentence.
Right: A lengthy
“I remember on the flight home
intro set the scene
with our milestone approved and for The 7th Guest
the cheque coming that Rob and I and the spooky
were worried. Now we’d actually goings on in the
have to finish this thing. I think I mansion.
had a pit in my stomach.”
But they needn’t have worried.
The team did indeed finish the
game, and it ended up being
released in April 1993. It began to
attract attention from other
videogame developers, too. “I
think Westwood Studios, which huge. “Myst had an impact on the however. While the reviews were
made Command & Conquer, came Mac market and we had an impact strong, the press jumped on the
up and they were interested in on the PC market,” Devine said. adult nature of The 7th Guest,
how we compressed things,” said Indeed, two million copies of The which was released at a time when
Devine. “I spoke to John Carmack 7th Guest were sold, and it is said to the industry was still in the early
about frame control and how we have been the catalyst for CD-ROM days of discussing age ratings. “I
controlled CD-ROMs for audio sales, too. “I think our game was think Congress was beginning to
– Quake uses the same music the thing that got a lot of CD-ROM look at the games industry and say,
player from The 7th Guest because I drives into computers, you know, regulate yourself or we will
gave him the source code for it.” although we didn’t get any regulate for you,” Devine said.
royalties from that. “But a rating on the box is only as
Myst effect “Then some months later, Myst good as the retailer that sells it,
Yet there was one game that also came out on PC as well and it too.”
Devine didn’t know about: Myst. was like proof – validation; a case Still, he’s more than happy at the
Produced by brothers Rand and of look, I bought this CD-ROM legacy of the game 30 years on.
Robyn Miller, it also ended up drive for The 7th Guest and now “People come up to me today and
being released in 1993 and it also The idea for putting there’s this second great game, say they were terrified when they
made use of CD-ROM tech. a game on CD-ROM Myst. I’m more than happy to have watched their parents play The 7th
“The first time I saw Myst was in came after Devine both games lumped together. Guest,” Devine said. “And I’m like,
Costco and, on the very front of and Landeros saw That’s kind of an honour.” cool. It’s one of those games that
the box, it said, ‘leapfrogs the Philips CD-i. It wasn’t all entirely positive, people have a shared experience
Trilobyte’s The 7th Guest’ and I with.
thought, ‘what the f***?’ but I “The 7th Guest also influenced
bought it and it was cool. Later, I other games such as Silent Hill and
read an interview with Robin a bunch of FMV titles, I guess, and I
Miller and they were asked if find it hard to imagine what my
their game would be better life would have been like without
than The 7th Guest and he it – it changed and defined me.” It
said, ‘seventh what?’ We also saved a heap of floppy disks
both made our games from being made. “Yeah,” Devine
independently of each laughed. “We saved a whole bunch
other.” of trash from 21 extra disks of
Even so, the games. It certainly left
accumulative effect was an imprint.”

113
DOWNTIME
© @mismatchmediahq

CHIP CHAT
JOEL BURGESS REPORTS ON THE UNUSUAL SIDE OF TECH NEWS

NOTHING FOREVER AI-GENERATED

SEINFIELD TEMPORARILY
CANCELLED
GPT-generated TV show pulled
for transphobic stand-up.
A novel cartoon rip-off of Seinfeld
called Nothing Forever, which was

© Brian Moore via PC Gamer

being randomly generated in
real-time by a GPT-3 AI and aired
directly to Twitch, managed to
attract tens of thousands of
concurrent viewers in under a week,
when it launched at the start of
February. The unusual combination
of poorly timed laugh tracks and
absurdly bad dialogue was often CHIP CHAT
strange and nonsensical, but could
occasionally align to create
laughably ridiculous scenarios and
dialogue. While Nothing Forever was
Lol Verifier
intended to run uninterrupted well
No one cares if you laughed on the inside.
into the future, Twitch imposed a 14
day ban on the channel for Sometimes when we write ‘lol’ we have not actually lolled, which can be a problem for
breaching its Community some. Maybe you want to catch your employees’ attempts to be polite when you rip a good
Guidelines or Terms of Service thigh slapper and they don’t appreciate it enough, or you need proof that your dad is just
following a bit by generated-Jerry- pretending to laugh at mum’s jokes – whatever your particular predicament there’s finally
Seinfield-character Larry Feinberg a tool that will distinguish between the dishonest lols and the IRL ones. According to a
on transgender and liberal people. Tweet by its creator @lanewinfield the Lol Verifier device sits in between your keyboard
and PC and will only allow you to type ‘lol’ if its inbuilt AI microphone detects a real laugh.
© @mismatchmediahq

GOOGLE’S AI CHATBOT IS
REALLY BARD
Alphabet stock price slid by 9
percent after ChatGPT-
competitor mistake.
Whether it’s the ability to provide
answers to complicated coding
© Carnegie Mellon University

queries, or its skills in

recommending books to read
about historical figures, ChatGPT
is showing the world how capable
it is of answering en-par with, or
even surpassing, Google’s web
search results for many types of
queries. And while Microsoft may
have fumbled its way into a DENSEPOSE WI-FI CAMERA
competitive position here by being Routers can now watch you like a camera that you can’t tape over.
a major donor in OpenAI, its
decision to integrate a version of When it comes to Wi-Fi routers, humans are basically giant meat shields that reduce
GPT-3 in its Bing search engine the device’s ability to deliver a stable network. But it seems one router’s meat shield is
could be enough to take the reins another’s chance to see and interact with the world around it. Researchers at
from search incumbent Google. Carnegie Mellon University have developed a Wi-Fi signal detection software that
This is at least part of why Google allows networked routers to triangulate coordinates and even map the physical
rushed to launch its own Bard outlines of any human-shaped signal roadblock in a room. The researchers propose
chatbot publishing a factual error that it can turn basically any router into a Neo-like data camera that keeps track of
it made about the James Webb where us meat sacks are… a neat bit of tech that will help ChatGPT to shoot us
telescope in a Tweet in February. through walls once it achieves full sentience.

114
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